The Ranger and the Princess
by novaking2832
Summary: When the nations are brought to their knees, when darkness and plague rage the land, when the people's spirit has been locked away, Who will be the people's salvation? Who will defy the tyrant king? He doesn't know or care, but he knows one thing, revenge solves everything. Rated M for language and death
1. Prologue

**The Ranger and the Princess**

**Hello everybody, This is my first attempt at a fanfic. I hope that it will reach the standards you place upon this fic when reading. I meant to release this on Valentines day (not a good day for me, never has been and that just added to it) but Pages doesn't work on this site so, I had to get a new program and that took time. This is set sometime in the Middle Ages, but there is no specific time it's set at.**

**I don't own Pokemon**

**Chapter 1: Prologue**

"The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them."

-Lois McMaster Bujold

A woman sprinted away from the burning village cradling a baby bundled in some cloth hurriedly wrapped around the baby. The air was heavy with smoke and ash that held a luminescent red glow that emitted from behind her. She ran with a stream of blood coming from a large gash on her leg that trickled onto the green grass barley wet with dew as the night turned into the morning.

She was heading straight towards the river that ran from the village out of the region and as she ran the baby she cradled in some grey cloth was crying loudly and the mother attempted in vain to calm him down with soothing words but only managed to choke out a few weak words of comfort. She knew she had to get the child out of the town, but she hadn't listened to the warnings that Lord Oak had given her. She still remembered when he had come to her with his warning.

_-FLASHBACK-_

_It was a nice spring day as Lord Oak walked towards his dear friend's home. While they normally had tea together and enjoyed these times he got to spend with his friend he has important matters to discuss this time. This time he was not looking forward to their meeting._

_He slowly approached the small house just a short ways away from his own home. It was a modest home. A beautiful garden decorated the front, contributing the welcoming feeling of the home._

_He approached the door and knocked twice and waited for a few momnets before his dear friend Delia Ketchum opened up the door for him with a beautiful smile._

"_Lord Oak, its wonderful to see you again." She says to him, a broad grin oon her face._

"_I don't know who started this whole "lord" business but I really hope people stop calling me that. I am a professor that comes from a wealthy family. At best I'm a noble." He says with an annoyed look on his face_

_Delia chuckled at his reaction. She knew it got under his skin but she couldn't help herself. _

"_Please come in, the tea is already on the table." She says as she steps aside, allowing him entrance to her home._

"_Thank you Delia, but I have some serious matters to discus with you this time." He said as he sat down at a small table with two chairs placed adjacent to each other supporting two saucers with empty cups and a small silver pot of steaming tea with a cloth wrapped around the handle to prevent someone from getting burned._

"_Delia you must understand how dire the situation truly is. The Kingdom of Hoenn has been brought down to its knees, pushed to the farthest reaches of their land where they hold out in Petalburg City and Rustboro City, which is currently under siege. Sinnoh isn't fairing any better, They just lost Hearthome City and have fallen back to Snowpoint City, their last stronghold. Their frontlines aren't far away. They have managed to hold King Giovanni's forces at Eterna City and Celestic Town but I worry for how long they will be able to hold that front. Only the Iron Islands have been left untouched. Even Giovanni knows what will happen if he attempts to take on the Aura Guardians. He's already in complete control of the Orange Islands and the Kingdom of Johto. It may take a few more years to prepare but he doesn't even have to take out Hoenn, he can just use it as a checkpoint to get to Unova. You must leave immediately if you are to escape. He knows of your heritage now and therefore your child's. Your child is the inly threat to his throne and he will not hesitate to kill him. His reach spreads far so you must leave now if you are to outrun him. It's your only chance." Lord Oak says_

"_I will not raise my son in some place other than where his home really is. A life of running around in fear is not a life at all and certainly not the one I will have for my son." Delia said defiance written in her eyes._

"_A life in hiding isn't a bad one. We could get you to Unova, or perhaps you could stay with the remaining forces in Hoenn. While it is risky being so close to the enemy you will have an escape route if you are attacked and it's the place he will least suspect you to be at." Oak argued with her._

"_Professor I will not be ran from my home because our so called "king" is afraid of a 9 month old baby" _

"_Please Delia listen to reason. Your putting your son in grave danger because of your own stubbornness. Do you really want Pallet town to be burned to the ground? They will be here within the month and they will be here for blood. Oak sighed and ran a finger through his hair. "At least know that I have will be staying in Hoenn for a time. I fear Giovanni wishes to recruit Gary into his twisted army. If you change your mind travel down the river and I will have an extra room set up for you." With that Professor Oak stood up and walked out of the Ketchum residence._

_-END FLASHBACK-_

Now she had paid the price as she watched as the entirety of Pallet town burned to the ground by a woman on a Salamance and soldiers sent by King Giovanni.

She had received the cut from a falling piece of wood while attempting escape from her burning home with her only child. She would never forget the sadistic grin on the face of the woman on the Salamance, but that wouldn't matter because soon she wouldn't have a memory to use. She would be dead soon and she knew it.

All that mattered was getting the one that they had come to kill to safety. Sprinting along the bushes and trees that scratched and clawed at her as she ran by. She carried the baby, that all this destruction had been caused for. The desolation of an entire town and its people for one child. She was almost to the river where she could use the docks to get him to safety in the Hoenn region and to Lord Oak who was waiting about sixteen miles down river. She knew the risks that came with this plan, but anything was better than dying at the hands of a Salamance.

She burst through underbrush that lead to the small dock that had a fishing rod leaning against one of the supportive pillars and a rowboat built for one person. She gently laid the baby in the small boat and tore out the parchment she had grabbed before she left her home and began scribbling furiously using a piece of charcoal as a pen.

She froze just a few words away from finishing as she heard the roar of a Salamance originating from not far away. she quickly finished writing and gave the baby a quick kiss and looked into his deep brown eyes still fresh with tears.

"I'm so sorry, I wish I could have been a better mother to yo-" she stopped and let out a sob, finally allowing the tears she and held back to come loose.

"But now you must find your own way without me. Just remember that I'll always love you" with those final words Delia Ketchum pushed the boat downstream towards the Hoenn region.

Just as the boat disappeared from sight multiple Houndoom burst from where she had not a minute earlier with men suited in gleaming silver armor, the crest of the Kanto region imprinted on each of their breastplates, following shortly after.

"Where is he?" a woman atop a Salamance demanded in a harsh voice.

"Hidden" Delia said with a small smile. The calm look on the woman's face vanished and transformed into one of unbridled anger.

"If you tell us where you hid him I might just let you live." she said with barley-contained anger.

Delia just shook her head and said, "You'll kill me even if I tell you".

The woman the looks at Delia for a few seconds, her face turning into a smirk then she simply says "true". Delia's body disappeared into a beam of white light originating from the mouth of the Salamance and when the beam dissipated, all that remained was a smoking crater and some burnt cloth slowly diminishing to cinders.

The woman atop the Salamance turned to the men and said "Fan out and search the area for the boy. There are only so many places she could have hidden him and I don't care if you have to burn the whole forest down just find him. I have never failed a mission and I not going to start to just because of a small boy and his whore mother."

"Yes Hunter J" the men shouted and fanned out in different directions to search for the boy.

With that she began to slowly glide over the forest as the men below split up into different directions and began to search for the baby, none of them considering that the former Delia Ketchum would send her child down the river.

**-NEXT MORNING-**

A small wooden boat drifted lazily along a river until it a small rock pushed it towards the edge of the river where the current had no affect. A curious Poochyena cautiously walked towards the unfamiliar object that came to rest on its pack's territory.

The Poochyena peered over the edge and was surprised to see what appeared to be a sleeping human child. As it stared the baby stirred in its slumber and awoke. The child blinked sleepily and looked up at the Poochyena with red puffy eyes indicating that it had been crying. The Poochyena simply stared, not knowing what to do and the baby stared back eyes full of curiosity.

It was silent except for the soft breeze and an occasional Taillow or even rare Pidgey flying over head. It was broken by the loud rumbling coming from the baby's stomach causing a fresh wave of tears and bouts of crying to come from the baby.

The Poochyena didn't know what to do, so it ran into the bushes close by and emerged a few minutes later followed by a cautious Treeko and Torchic by its side along with an Oran Berry in its mouth. The two new companions stayed back from the boat unsure about their friends new discovery was a good one or a bad one.

The Poochyena carefully laid down the Oran berry at the top of the boat and it rolled until it hit the baby's leg. It stopped its wailing almost instantly and picked the Oran berry, studying it for a moment then taking large bites from it until it disappeared into its mouth. The Baby then looked up at the Poochyena again, hopeful for more but then began to crawl towards it with some difficulty due to the swaying boat.

The child eventually managed to climb over the low railing of the boat and onto land, right in front of the Poochyena with a Treeko and a Torchic cautiously moving towards him. He blinked at them all once and then proceeded to crawl towards the bushes, but the Poochyena quickly bit down on the cloth that adorned the baby's waist and dragged it back towards the boat and laid him down at the bow where he had first climbed out of the boat. It barked its name a few times at him, but the baby only tilted its head in confusion and stared.

The Poochyena sat down and began to think of a way to solve this problem, its waging tail mesmerizing the child. With surprisingly fast speed the child clamped onto the tail of the Poochyena and it yelped in pain. The child paid it no heed though as he began to play with the tail, pulling hairs out and giving an occasional tug. The Poochyena, unable to do anything called for his friends to help, but they were too busy laughing at the situation their friend had gotten into to do anything. Eventually the Treeko calmed down enough to come over and pull the child away along with a clump of hair from the Poochyena's tail.

The Poochyena began to do circles around itself in a vain attempt to see its tail only causing more laughter from the other three. The happy moment was cut short however when a Mightyena walked through the bushes causing all laughter to stop dead. The Mightyena stared at the seen unsure what to do with the immediate problem, i.e. the child. It walked over to it and sniffed the baby for a moment before determining that it was of no threat it then barked at the Poochyena asking where the child came from.

After a quick explanation from the three pokemon the Mightyena sat down and stared directly into the child's eyes. After what seemed to be an eternity the Mightyena bit the child gently by its cloth and began to carry it away with the other three in tow. None of them, however noticed the small piece of parchment weighted down by some soot covered grey cloth that still lay in the boat.

**Well there's the first chapter, and possibly the only chapter depending on how you guys like this. I know that Geographical locations I've put everything at aren't on point, but they need to be where I place them. Criticism, support, suggestions, and anything else are welcome. This was long overdue to publish, I just didn't have the balls to click the publish tab (Thanks Alec). I hope you enjoyed and I'll try to update every week, so until next time. **

**-Sincerely,**

**novaking2832 **


	2. Chapter 1: New Beginnings

**Hello again, I'm actually writing this about two days after the first chapter. That may sound cocky, but it's more of a precaution because I just looked at my schedule for the next two terms of school. In other words, I'm screwed. Anyway I hope you enjoy and here's a shoutout to all who commented, even though I PMed you guys anyway. This is the real first ****chapter, the last was the prologue.**

**Pure Gamer:**** Thank you for being my first reviewer and for the helpful advice. I attempted to better myself in this chapter and will hopefully meet your expectations. I will do my best to assure no more simple mistakes will occur.**

**Sailor Taichichi Vegeta: Thanks for reviewing, it actually took me a while to think of a character that would be suitable enough to kill someone besides Giovanni himself. I get you though, February 14 is just not my day. Although at least someone has a bad time like me. Misery loves company and all**

**Still don't own Pokemon**

**Chapter 1: New Beginnings **

A lone cat trudged along a beaten path in the woods, It was mid afternoon with the sun shining bright in the sky and the Taillow called out there names occasionally, calling to each other. There was a soft breeze that caused fallen leaves to lazily lift off the ground and twirl in the air.

The lone Meowth walked slowly with its head down and had a noticeable trudge that could've been mistaken as a limp as he walked through the forest muttering under his breath.

"Useless, I'll show 'em who's the useless one those assholes. I was the brains behind all we did. They won't last a week without me" he muttered.

"But I still can't believe that afta all we'd been through they'd just throw me away for a Persian. That I had beat in a fight no less!" yelling the last part.

-_FLASHBACK_-

_The Meowth walked towards his partners. He no ordinary Meowth though, he could talk and was a mercenary for hire. He had been for almost his entire life, but he really wanted to settle and start up a bar. He knew he would have to save up a lot of money for that. Which is exactly what he didn't have._

_But he was content with his life. He had two partners that, while fairly stupid and annoying sometimes, took care of him. Their names were Jessie and James. Jessie was a hot-headed, long pink haired woman that wore black combat boots lined with fur on the inside and white pants with a belt keeping them around her waist that held various pouches and a knife tucked onto its sheath. She wore a matching low cut shirt that left a small part of her stomach exposed and was meant to make moving around easier and had long black gloves that reached just before elbows. James has short blue hair and could be overly emotional and sporadic at times. He wore a similar outfit consisting of the same boots, pants, and belt, which instead of a knife adorned a short sword also sheathed. He had a loose white shirt on that laid tucked into his belt and thick black gloves._

_They talked to each other back and forth like they were arguing about something. As he approached Jessie silenced James by covering his mouth with her hand. _

"_He guys whatcha arguin' about?" the Meowth asked_

_Jessie laughed an over the top fake laugh "Whatever are you talking about Meowth we were... having a spirited debate! Yeah that's it."_

_The Meowth just shrugged, used to the odd behavior of his partners and began to pack up his bag. "So where's the next job takin' us? I here there's plenty of infiltration jobs in Johto." The Meowth says._

_The other two just looked at each other. "Listen Meowth it's not that we don't like you or anything, but we found a replacement for you." Jessie says carefully._

_The Meowth froze "You what?" he asks. The hurt evident in his voice._

_James spoke up saying "Look Meowth it's that the Persian that kicked your ass on that last job. He and his master have offered us a contract. that allows us to get a good share of the pay. Meowth I am really sorry, but this is a harsh world and when an opportunity arises you have to take it."_

"_You guys are replacing me with that mangy ball of fur!" He roared. "I can't believe this, we have been partners fa years and ya throwing that all away for a fuckin' Persian! Ya know what, you're right James, ya do have ta seize opportunities when they come and I'm takin' this one. I QUIT! Meowth turned and ran grabbing his pack as he sprinted from them, holding back tears._

-_END FLASHBACK_-

He sighed as he began to walk away from the path and into the less docile part of the forest. That had been three days ago and in that time he had been mugged, kicked out of a tavern, and had things thrown at him when he tried to sleep in the Rapidash stables of said tavern.

It had been a week of hell for him but as he was walking he felt as if he was being watched and he would occasionally see something moving in his peripheral vision, but when he turned to look, nothing was there. he simply ignored and it and assumed it was his nerves after being on his own for the first time in a while.

As he walked around he had his ears perked up, searching for any detectable noise that could be considered prey for him. He walked around as quietly as he could until he heard the faint cry of a Taillow. Normally he wouldn't care, but this call came from a lower elevation than all the other ones, he could tell that this one was on the ground.

He carefully walked towards where the faint call had come from and came to a small area where part of a tree had fallen down making a good six feet of the tree still planted in the ground, but leaving its other fallen half sitting at a ninety degree angle next to it.

Next to that tree was a small Taillow that was pecking at the ground and hopping about.

He smiled to himself, although it had been awhile since he had to hunt, he knew what he had to do. He slowly positioned himself downwind from the bird making sure that he wouldn't be given away due to his scent. Not that the Taillow had the best sense of smell, but better safe than sorry.

He tried to get himself facing into the sun but it opposed the wind in casting his shadow towards the Taillow. He would have to jump at the Taillow when his shadow close enough for the Taillow to realize what was going on. It was a little before midday so his shadow wouldn't reach that far away from him though.

He began to slowly crawl towards the Taillow, just as he was about to reach it his stomach ley out a loud growl. He looked down at his stomach, but then looked back up only to get a mouthful of feathers from the wing attack that just connected with his face. When he picked himself up all he saw was the Taillow flying away. He growled in disappointment and frustration.

His stomach once again growled loudly. "You wouldn't have had to do that if you had waited a few more seconds!" he yelled at his stomach.

With a heavy sigh he began to walk away from the fallen tree until he noticed a shadow that was not the tree's coming from the top of the half still rooted in the ground. He spun around fast only to see that there was nothing there.

"Great, now I'm seeing things" he muttered. He turned and began walking away, but as he did he didn't notice the shadow begin to follow him.

Eventually he came to a small clearing and saw exactly what he was looking for, another chance at food. A small Zigzagoon sat crouched in the clearing eating a small berry. The Meowth unsheathed its claws and carefully crawled towards the distracted Zigzagoon, making sure that he was downwind and facing toward the sun as best he could so he wouldn't make a shadow that his prey could see.

He slowly crawled towards the Zigzagoon and as he was a mere 6 feet from him the Zigzagoon it perked it ears up and suddenly launched a sand-attack at the surprised Meowth and without turning around bolted away into the underbrush while the blinded Meowth attempted to get rid of the sand in its eyes.

When he finally opened his eyes he was greeted with a now empty clearing, he sighed as his stomach rumbled and said "Shud up, or you'll give me away again". He turned around to go search for more prey but came face to face human boy that had only leaves and bits of cloth around his waist.

"Gah!" he yelled as he stumbled back in surprise. "Don't scare me like that ya twerp, you'll give me a heart attack".

The boy simply tilted his head at the Meowth and said "H-hear-heart". The Meowth looked up at him in confusion and said "Yeah, you know? That thing in your chest that keeps you alive. What are ya stupid?". He simply responded with "a-alive".

Now the Meowth was confused, "Uh twerp? Are you okay? Where are your parents? Shouldn't you be with them?"

The boy just looked at him and stuttered out "Par-parents". The Meowth was starting to get frustrated.

"Yeah your parents. Don't play stupid with me twerp and answer my questions". This time the boy didn't say anything and looked at him.

The Meowth sighed and said "Whatever twerp just get outta here" and with that the Meowth began to walk away.

He hadn't taken three steps before he heard the boy following him. He stopped and turned around and looked at the boy and said

"Go away twerp, I don't want you here". With that he trend and walked at faster pace away from the clearing, this time he heard no footsteps following him and so he continued until he thought he heard the cry of the Zigzagoon again.

As he turned towards the noise but he noticed the boy mere two steps behind him. " How did you follow me without me noticing?" he asked. The boy just said "Noticing" and looked at the Meowth expectantly, as if waiting for him to say more words.

"Do even speak proper English twerp?" he asked sarcastically. His response was "Eng-English".

Realization dawned on him at that moment. "Holy shit you don't speak English do you?. All he got for an answer was the boy saying English again, without the stutter this time.

The boy looked proud of himself and said "Heart alive noticing English" and beamed at the Meowth.

The Meowth just gaped at him and finally began to study the boy. He was taller than the average boy for his age by about a few inches, maybe a bit more. He had dark brown eyes with strange lightning bolts under them. as he worked his examination downward he noticed that for a boy who was what? Maybe six, was well built.

Granted that wash't saying much because the boys muscles hadn't fully developed so it's not like you could see a six pack or anything but you could see the noticeably bigger size of his muscles than almost all boys his age. The Meowth took note of the two scars on his chest and the three in a row barley poking out from behind his leg suggesting he been clawed at some point. He had a few bruises and scrapes as well but that was to be expected in the woods.

The Meowth came to the conclusion that the kid lives here and never learned English from where ever it is he ran away from, that was the only logical explanation he could come up with as to why he grew up all alone here.

"Alright twerp come with me and I'll teach ya a fews things that you should know if you're going to survive in the real world. The boy, still smiling, said "Teach" and the Meowth said, "Yes teach. Name's Meowth by the way. Got that? Me-owth". he said while pointing to himself

"Meowth" the boy said after a failed first attempt. Meowth nodded "That's right, now follow me, you got things ta learn and I think it would be bes to start learning ova lunch".

With that he began walking with the boy following behind saying the words he had learned over and over again.

**Well there you have it, chapter two. I hope you enjoyed this and if you did please comment. I know there was a huge time skip but I can't show his day to day life as a kid now can I? As for the scars, he lives in the woods with wild pokemon. It just made sense that he would get some cuts and scars from it. On a side note, do you guys want a chapter with how Ash met Pikachu or should Pikachu just be there suddenly? I think I should but it's up to you guys. Just say yes or no in the comments, or PM me. Support, criticism, suggestions, and anything else are always welcome. Although I realize now that any suggestions from the last chapter are basically pointless because I wrote this before the release of the story. Shit, sorry about that. Anyway thanks for reading, until the next time.**

**-Sincerely,**

**novaking2832**


	3. Chapter 2: The Big City

**Hello once again everybody and how are you? This is the official second chapter of my first story and I hope you enjoy it. Here's my shoutout to all of the people who commented.**

**Sailor Taichichi**** Vegeta: Thanks again for reviewing, I wasn't sure if my reason for Meowth being on his own was convincing enough, but I'm glad you liked it. As for Pikachu, I got a plan. I just hope it comes together.**

**I don't own Pokemon**

**Chapter 2: You Learn Something New Everyday**

"That's not fuckin' possible" yelled an exasperated Meowth.

"All evidence to the contrary." replied a young boy the smirk evident on his face.

"There is no way in hell you can survive something like that" the Meowth yelled.

"Look Meowth, just deal with it, I won just like I always do. Think of it this way, you lasted longer than you usually do" the boy said, smirk still plastered on his face.

Meowth just sighed and says "You're a dick, ya know that right?"

The kid's smirk just grew wider and he released the hold he had placed him in. To anyone looking at them they would have seen a Meowth's face planted straight in the ground with his arm bent behind him. The boy had used Meowth's own claws as his weapon. He had positioned them so that they pointed directly into Meowth's ribs forcing him to retract his claws, which were his only mode of effective attack against the boy.

"Ya know I remember not a few years ago when you could barley form a coherent sentence. What happened to that innocent little boy that always called me sir and never shoved my own claws in my back?" Meowth asks, yelling the last part.

"You took me on one of your "missions", that's what happened." The boy responded, recalling the time when they had been on the way back from the first job the kid had ever been on. They ended passing a brothel and Meowth decided to "celebrate" the occasion, Meowth proceeded to leave him outside the brothel for almost five hours before he came back out. The boy's innocence had been long gone after everything he had heard. He hadn't been able to look at Meowth the same way since.

"Yeah and I'm startin' to regret ever tellin' ya about me being a mercenary" Meowth says with a frustrated look on his face.

"I didn't force you to tell me about your old life, you willingly told me about all your jobs and how to do them."

"Whatever lets jus go home. I'm getting hungry" Meowth grumbled.

The two began to walk back towards the small rock formation they called home. It wasn't really the greatest place in the world, but it wasn't made for comfort. It had been formed through the small waterfall that served as a shower to all the indigenous Pokémon there. It had overhangs that kept the weather away and had small indents in its walls that didn't quite reach the criteria of a cave. There was one cave however that was the home to the rock Pokémon that lived in the small sanctuary.

"Home sweet home" Meowth says as he ran towards the largest of the indents along the side of cliff. "Do you think we could get some of the rock Pokémon to extend this inwards a little? It gets really cold during the winter and they refuse to share."

"If you ask nicely I'm sure they would oblige and are you still angry about that? That cave is their home and they were here before either of us. They have every right to deny you access into their cave." The boy says.

"There ya go again with the big words and actin' like you super smart. You wouldn't have known what two plus two was without me and don't you forget it" Meowth says pointing a finger at the boy.

"I know Meowth and I will be forever grateful to you for that" the boys says, gratitude evident in his voice.

"I know you are twerp" Meowth says with a cheesy grin on his face.

"Whatever furball" the kid says the same grin adorned on his faec as well.

"Speakin' of jobs though" Meowth began.

"That conversation ended a while ago" the kid interrupted.

"The point is, that there are somethings I want to do with this place if it's really goin' ta be my home, and to get these things we're goin' ta need cold hard cash" Meowth says with a devious smirk on his face.

The boy's face lit up at the idea of going on another job with Meowth. While it is true that the last one had ended on a...loud note, he enjoyed the actual job he had preformed. They had been hired to simply break into someone's house and steal a wedding ring. Probably belonged to a divorced husband who wanted his ring back or something. Things like that weren't uncommon. Meowth had always taught him that things like compassion and trust were far and few in-between.

"What did you have in mind? Are we switching regions or staying in Hoenn for this? the boy asks

"Well, I would say that the best high paying' jobs are in Saffron City in Kanto, but that's where the King lives as well so the guards will be experienced and well trained. In the case we get captured they also will expect more fer a bribe as well. Hoenn is safer but has jobs that pay less. Johto has even less paying jobs and there are a lot of soldiers there as backup fer the forces at the front line so that's out of the question. hmmmmm, damn, this is a harder decision than I had originally thought." Meowth says, scratching his thoughtfully.

"I say we go to Kanto. We should get the money you need as fast as possible and get out of there. From what you told me, it's not the place we want to stay for too long." the boys says

"How about we do some high payin' jobs in Kanto ta get, I don't know two-thirds of the way there, and then come back here and split up doing smaller jobs but still gaining money as long as we do some decent payin' jobs."

The plan brought an uneasy look to the kid's face. "Are you sure splitting up would be a good idea? I mean would anyone even take me seriously? I'm somewhere around fourteen right? So I'm not sure that anyone would even hire me." He says

"Ya got a point. So how about I accept the jobs and you go out and do them while I do another one at the same time."

"Meowth, I really don't like the idea of splitting up. I'm not comfortable going around on my own. Everything is too unfamiliar too me out there." The boy says, a nervous look on his face.

Meowth sighs, "Alright, how about we scope out the area for a week before we accept jobs when we get back to Hoenn. That way you know ya way around. Besides you can handle yaself jus' fine. C'mon twerp, you had been on your own for years before I got here.

The boy sighed, knowing that the Meowth just didn't get that he didn't want to be without his friend, but he relented. "Alright, that sounds fine. When should we leave for Saffron?"

"I'd say in a couple a days. I need to get some equipment fer the two of us before we go." Meowth replies.

"Alright" the boy replies, still unhappy with the situation, but kept it hidden. "I'm going to hang out with Grovyle and Torchic for a little. I'll be back with some food." he said as he was walking away towards the river he knew Grovyle trained at. Torchic usually trained with him, hoping to evolve like her friend. Torchic was probably exhausted from training with him by now. She never really had been able to keep up with Grovyle, but did her best none the less.

He could here the cries of Grovyle as he rained blow after blow on a tree. He was trying to get used to the new blades that came with his new evolutionary state. He figured the best way to do that would be to use his Leaf Blade on the tree he always practiced on. Its brake had fallen away long ago, due to all the punches, kicks, and moves he had used on it.

The boy walked into the clearing and saw his old friend mercilessly attacking his tree. What drew his attention was Torchic, as predicted, sitting on the ground with some cuts and bruises. The boy figured that they had sparred recently. Grovyle also had a few cuts and bruises, but nothing close to Torchic.

"Hey Torchic, how was training?" he asks

"Torchic Tor Tor chic Tor" Torchic said with a disappointed look on her face.

The boy had never understood what his Pokemon friends say, but he had managed to get the gist of what they were saying through their body language. The disappointment on Torchic's spoke volumes though.

"Got ass kicked again huh? Did he take it easy on you at least?"

"Tor Tor chic"

"I didn't think he would. Don't worry, when you evolve you'll be able to kick his ass all the way to Sinnoh" the boy says with a grin. Torchic couldn't help but grin in return, think of being able to beat her friend/rival.

The boy stood from his crouched position beside his friend and calls out to Grovyle "Hey Grovyle, I need to bring some food back for me and Meowth. You want to go hunting with me?"

Grovyle paused in his training and turned towards his friend. "Grovyle Gro vyle Gro"

"Sounds good" I hear the has been a large swarm of Taillow that have been getting too comfortable in our hunting grounds. You want grab so of them?"

Grovyle nodded and retracted his blades bad to their original green form rather than the glowing, deadly sharp weapons he uses them as. Before they and a chance to leave though, Torchic jumped up at the opportunity to be with her friends, surprising both of them. It seemed that not moments ago she looked ready to pass out from exhaustion.

The boy grinned "Alright, looks like we're getting the pack back together" referring to their groups of friends consisting of the three of them and their friend a Poochyena. Poochyena had been busy recently though, having little time for his friends and it had been the same with the boy.

"I doubt Poochyena is free today though, which is kind of a bummer, but maybe he'll be free later." the boy says, not really believing his own words. he knew that Poochyena was going to take over as the Alpha of his pack sometime. That meant that his father, the current Alpha would be training him non stop till he was ready. He could deb challenged at any time for the right of bring the Alpha and the beginning was when it was really bad. It's when you first earn the title of Alpha that the other Mightyena believe they can take the title for themselves.

"Let's head downriver. The Taillow have roosted in that area where the currents are at their strongest" that was true, but it wasn't saying much because the currents were not all that strong.

Grovyle nodded in response and Torchic began to prance in the intended direction. Grovyle just sighed after he saw the happy go lucky bird skip away while the boy just chuckled at the site and began to follow.

As they approached the area where the Taillow were supposedly staying for the time, they came to a small clearing that led to the edge of the river. The boy looked around the area with his ears tuned in for any Taillow calls or anything to hint their position. As he surveyed downriver though, he saw what appeared to be an old rotting boat.

He began to run towards the boat that had appeared to have washed into the small area a very long time ago and called out "Hey is anybody over there? Are you lost? Do you need help?" after pausing a little ways from the boat with his companions.

He was answered with silence except for a soft breeze. "Hello?" he called out again. Again he was answered in silence. He took the silence as the go ahead to enter the area, but he kept his guard as did Torchic and Grovyle. He carefully walked towards the boat, wanting to know if there was anything important or of value inside. All he saw was a small pile of grey robes that looked like they had been through hell and back. They were torn up everywhere and had some areas that looked like they had been burned. It was strange though because the boat looked like it hadn't moved for years. It didn't look like anyone or anything had been using the boat for a purpose so that pegged the question. How did this boat get here?

He cautiously entered the boat. Looking around again for any signs of a trap and picked up the tattered rags and examined them closely for any sign of the previous owner. He couldn't blame the person for leaving these. They were of almost no use, except maybe he could give this to Meowth for a little more blanket. It was much too small for him so why not?

"Do you guys know who brought this thing up here?" he asks his companions

"Gro gro vyle gro vyle" responded Grovyle.

The boy looked at him surprised, "So this is where you found me huh? I always thought you guys found me in the woods or something. Not on a boat by the shore."

A small piece of parchment caught his eye. He pulled out the crinkled piece of paper and noticed some writing scrawled over it. While almost impossible to read he could make out a majority of it and it read: **Ash, I am your mother Delia Ketchum and I am dead. You should know that first. I know that the professor will keep you safe from harm with his grandson. Don't throw your name around though. You have deadly enemies that you made upon your birth, but know that I will always love you. -Your mother, Delia Ketchum**

The boy read it again. Then a third time, and a fourth, then fifth, and a sixth before looking up again. He turned back to his friends again "Are you sure you found me here? Are you absolutely positive?". They nodded in response, noticing the serious demeanor he held on his face.

He rand a hand through his hair and mutters "Fuck". Was that his name? Ash. He had never known his name, nor had he bothered to make one up for himself. It just didn't seem right to do so. He had always been referred to as "you" or "kid" and in Meowth's case "twerp". Having a name had never seemed necessary.

But now he had one, Ash and a mother who is apparently dead. But how did she die? Who killed her? Who is the professor? Should he be happy that he has a name and a mother? Or should he be furious that his mother had abandoned him and gotten him lost in the woods, barley seeing a human till he was maybe twelve or so. He punched the bottom of the boat, startling his friends and putting a decent dent in the rotted wood. He wasn't even sure why he was mad. Was he mad at his mom? Or that she was dead and he should figure out how she died? He only knew one thing. He was Ash Ketchum and he had to find this "professor"

-TWO WEEKS AND THREE DAYS LATER-

"Alright twerp, slow it down. We don't need attract unnecessary attention to ourselves." Meowth chastised the energetic kid who was running up ahead of him towards the gate that lead into Saffron City.

"Sorry Meowth, but it's my first time in a city. Sure I've been in a few towns but from what you've told me they're nothing like a city." Ash said energetically

"Well you're right about that. The city is one of the few places where I feel in my element. I mean I got no problem with the wild but in a city there is so much to steal. Not to mention all the brothels" he says, muttering the last part.

Ash looked at him with a horrified look on his face. "Please tell me you aren't taking me to one of those god awful places again. I don't now how you can stand them. They smell weird, like alcohol and...body odor."

Meowth chuckled a little before taking the opportunity to tease the boy "Well twerp, when a man and a woman or in my case a Meowth and a Meowth love each other very much. They go into a bedroom and do dirty things to each other and nine months later a baby/egg pops and BOOM, you're a parent." Meowth says, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Shut up Meowth, I know how sex works I lived with Pokemon for a good portion of my life to know how mating works".

"Matin' huh?" Meowth replies knowing that the boy didn't really believe in love and all that crap. Which was kind of his fault. But all he saw having sex as was a way to continue his legacy. That's what the Mightyena had told him anyway.

"Yeah mating. Why are you giving me that weird look."

You know normal people just call in havin' sex, makin' love, fuckin', doin' it, banging, gettin' it on, gettin' laid, going at it, shagin', and even tapin' that. Hell all boys your age brag about getting' some even though it's complete bullshit. But then again, you're not just a normal boy now are you." Meowth says with a grin still stuck on his face.

"I fucking hate you Meowth"

"And I luv ya too buddy" Meowth says in a cheeky voice before he bursts into laughter. He knew Ash hated talking about hunts like that. Although he was a wild kid, he has the emotions of a regular teenage boy still.

After passing throughout the gate and getting suspicious looks from the guards there, they were let in. the guards didn't like anyone except those ho bribed them. But they didn't have a reason to force them to leave. Besides, it was just a kid and a Meowth. What could possibly go wrong?

As the duo walked through the city the saw people all about. Some were selling things or trying to get people to check out their wares. Others were milling about, shopping and whatnot. As they walked though there was a sudden commotion behind and they saw a small boy run past them with guards hot on his tale. But before the guards could catch him he jumped onto a crate filled with Corphish and jumped onto a higher stack after it and leaping to a window sill and catching the edge of it. Before he made is escape he turned to the guards and stick his tongue out at them before grabbing an apple out of his pants pocket and taking bit of it. He chuckled at the guards attempts to reach, but before he knew it a rock made clean contact with his head and he fell to the ground. He was immediately swarmed by guards and brought away in cuffs.

"Let that be a lesson to you kid. As much as you want to, NEVER stick around to watch the aftermath of your deeds whether your deed was good or bad it's always best just to move on."

Ash just nodded. He knew the consequences of the life he had chosen, and what would happen if he got caught. But he would be lying if he said that he didn't want to help the kid out. It isn't easy seeing one of your own "kind" get caught and dragged away. The boy was a fellow thief and it's always good for thieves to stick together. You can steal more stuff that way.

But they couldn't start trouble on the first day, they planned to be here at least a month. Doing maybe five jobs a week depending on how complicated they were. "Let's just find a tavern or something Meowth. I don't want to see this."

"Alright kid, if my memory serves me correctly there should be a tavern a few blocks ahead of here. Remember to walk at a slow pace and eavesdrop on any conversation you can. Any information is useful, even some woman cheating on her husband can be used for blackmail." Ash just nodded and began to slow his pace and listen to the conversations around him, isolating all sound except for the conversation he wanted to hear.

He heard few things of interest. Mostly girls talking about hot boys at school or a wife complaining about something. A few drunks here and there and some men complaining about their lost poker games. Some guards were talking about he latest new from the front lines. Guards were always worth listening in o. It was incredible how easy information was to come by from listening to these idiots blab about all things they weren't supposed to say. "Did you hear?" one says "What" replies another", "News from the frontline is that the people in Hoenn are still holding out in that fortress of theirs". "I didn't think they would have lasted another week but all these years they have managed to get by is getting really annoying" the third grunted. "Yeah but they can't do anything to us as long as we got her locked up nice and tight" a fourth said.

That was all he had managed to pick besides a laugh that came from them shortly after he was out of eavesdropping range. Nothing that important really, but they always discussed what the hear when they are alone. It was a way of see in what could be used as what. But by the time he started to listen in on other conversations they were at the tavern entrance. The sign read "The Obsidian Onix".

"I remember this place" Meowth says with a reminiscent look on his face "It was hear that they had that beautiful Delcatty that was always beside the tavern keeper's wife. Oh what I wouldn't do to see her again"

"Please stop. I don't want you to go into detail about your attraction to other Pokemon." Ash says, an annoyed look on his face that they were already back on this subject.

"Whateva you say twerp" Meowth says before he goes in with Ash in tow. Their entrance attracted minimal attention, only that of the barkeeper and his wife seemed to look at them for more than a moment. Travelers were pretty common in Saffron City. "Hello Sir, I'd like a room with two beds please" Meowth says while putting three silver pieces on the counter after sitting himself on a stool. "We're stayin' for about a month, maybe a bit more but this should cover us for the night."

The bar keeper looked surprised for a minute that there was a talking Meowth in his tavern, but brushed it aside before giving them a key to their room and taking the coins. "Dearest could please escort them to their room?" the barkeeper asks his wife. "But of course" his wife says with a small curtsy "This way please" she says as she began to walk up a flight of stairs. She led the to the fifth room on the left and said "You may come down at anytime for some food and our world famous ale". "Oh I plan to" Meowth says with a grin and she then left them to make themselves comfortable.

As soon as they had put their packs down they turned to each other "Whadya hear?" Meowth asks almost immediately

"The only thing worth talking about was the guards talking about the news from the front line. Other than that it was only drunks mumbling nonsense and woman talking or shopping." Ash answers

"Did you see or hear anythin' that they were buyin' that could be used as blackmail or at least anythin' to steal?"

"Not really. It was mostly food and cloth they were buying."

"What about the report from the front line?"

They were talking about the people holding out in Hoenn. They said that they were still holding out even though they should've surrendered a while ago and something about a girl in prison. That last one mean anything to you?"

Meowth just shook his head. "I think I know who they're talkin' about, but I don't like to make assumptions. That has screwed me over more than once. Alright, we still need more information about what is going on before we take any jobs. I'll scout around for info and potential jobs at the bar downstairs and go to a few others around town. You walk around and continue to eavesdrop and we'll meet back here and discuss anythin' we got that could be used. Got it?"

I get you Meowth, I'll see you in a few hours." Ash says while leaving. Ash began to walk around the streets looking for large crowds he could mine in and not look suspicious. He figured that the marketplace would do well as a good start, after almost an hour of going around from place to place he found nothing of real interest. Another update on the Sinnoh front and something about the King's son almost losing to one of the guards there. They had talked about the kid in light tones and in joking manner so it stands to reason that they don't fear the Prince as much as they do the King if at all. So moved through the streets again listening to people as he went with more success than his previous spot. He gained more knowledge on the news in Saffron from the woman and drunken men gossiping, or yelling in the drunks case, about politics and rumors going around. Nothing particularly interesting. He hated this part, but it was one of the most important. If you rushed in blind then you were bound to fail. This way he gained knowledge of the city and of where to go. he memorized the routes he took, which is one of the most important things to remember.

"Corner the little fucker" he heard a voice say from the alleyway a but away. This was what he wanted, some action and maybe some blackmail material. If he was lucky he could loot someone after they attackers left. He silently walked to the edge of the alleyway and saw a group of guards surrounding their target, which he had yet to see due to a guard blocking his line of site, but their victim appeared to be surrounded. He finally did catch a glimpse of their target and was surprised to see a Pikachu in the middle of the guards circle. He could plainly see the cuts it had on it sides and the food in its mouth, which was most likely stolen. He could also see the dent and cuts on the guards as well. This Pikachu looked like it was giving them a run for their money.

He continued to watch as the Pikachu fight one of the guards as he swung his sword at him which he countered with iron tail and seemed to be better at swordplay than the guard. They were probably fresh out of training or still in training to be this bad. The Pikachu swept the legs off the first just after his counter before giving him quick blow to the head to either kill or knock the guard unconscious and attempt a thunderbolt at the next one who stopped in his charge to dodge the attack. The third of the four came running from behind, sword raised but was deflected with iron tail. The guard took advantage though punched the Pikachu in its stomach pushing it further down the alley. The Pikachu recovered quickly though and launched a thunderbolt at the guard who wasn't fast enough to dodge and took 100,000 volts to the chest, killing him almost immediately. the last two came at the same time and swung their swords at the Pikachu. One aiming for the neck, hoping for a decapitation while the other swung his swords in a downward arc as if to split the Pikachu in half. Not a bad strategy, if they were facing a person, the Pikachu was too small for that to be effective. The Pikachu rolled to the side and ran up the sword of the guard who attempted to cut him in half while his sword was still on the ground from his failed attack and swung his iron tail upwards slicing the guards face from the neck and up and he fell backwards bleeding out.

The Pikachu however was still in the air from his attack and the other guard took advantage and swung his sword and cut the Pikachu across its stomach and pushing it back to the ground where it stayed, struggling to get back up. It was not easy too watch. Ash had been raised by Pokemon, they are his family and even though he didn't know this Pikachu he still felt like he should help him. He could respect the Pikachu's valor in his fight that he was destined to lose. Besides, he saw a bit of himself in the Pikachu. He was aware of the hardships of being alone and in trouble. A Pokemon had been there for him so he should return the favor. Time was running out though and he had to make a decision quickly as the guard raised his sword for the killing blow. He made up his mind and quickly ran behind the guard as the sword reached its peak height and slapped the guard on both his temples and he fell to the ground unconscious.

The Pikachu looked up at its savior before passing into the bliss of unconsciousness. Ash quickly took some of the undershirt the guard had and rapped it around the gash, tying it very tight to put pressure to the wound before taking the Pikachu into his cloak, hiding it from sight and began to speed walk through the town to get back to the tavern as fast as possible without attracting attention.

When he entered the tavern the barkeeper looked uo at him and nodded which he returned before going to his room and entering it and closing the door and sliding the chain over the door. He immediately sprang into action and placed the Pikachu on his bed and ran to Meowth's pack and grabbed the small medical kit they had. He ran back over to the still unconscious Pikachu before listening for any breathing. He heard it and although it was shallow it was there. He began to take out all the berries from the pack and grinded them into a small paste using the butt of his knife and the small plate that was meant to be an ashtray and quickly undue the makeshift bandage and spread the paste along the wound. Most of the bleed ing had stopped except for the right edge where the blade had punctured deepest. He put pressure on that area till the bleeding stopped and spread the remaining paste over the area and took out an actual bandage from the kit and wrapped it around the Pikachu.e would have to clean the wound as well, but for the moment he just wanted to stabilize his patient.

"Come on you bastard, I didn't risk my neck just for you to die on me." Ash mutters.

"Hey twerp you in here already?" He heard Meowth's voice from behind the door.

"Yeah Meowth, but you should know that we have a visitor on my bed." Ash says. Meowth slowly came into the room with his claws unsheathed looking around the room.

"Arceus twerp I thought you meant we were in trouble and you needed help" Meowth says as he Sheathed his claws. "Wherdya get this one?" he asks

"He was stuck up in an alley surrounded by guards and I helped him out."

"Kid that was really stupid! You better have killed all those guards or else we got ta leave now."

"Relax Meowth this Pikachu took out all but one, which I took care of whiteout him seeing me"

Meowth sighed "Why did ya help this Pikachu out?"

Ash just looked at the Pikachu "I really don't know. He just needed help and I felt obligated to be the one to help him out."

"You took a big risk here. You better hope this doesn't come back to bite us in the ass or I'll flay the thing myself."

"It won't, I promise. And you know I don't break my promises, ever."

Meowth sighed again "What are you gonna do with him? Keep him as a pet or somethin'? 'Cause I won't let him stick around if he's just gonna be dead weight"

"He can help us with recon and if necessary backup. He took down three guards while injured. That's not an easy feat." Ash says trying to convince Meowth to let the Pikachu live. Meowth always needed a reason that would benefit him or both of them to do something potentially risky and this was very risky. The Pikachu was obviously an enemy of the guards so it wouldn't help to have him around without a reason to keep him.

"Fine kid I'll talk to him in the mornin'. Even if he wakes up before us he doesn't have the strength to try anythin', but it looks like you're sleepin' on the floor tonight."

Ash just nodded accepting the consequences of his actions. "Okay Meowth and thanks. You won't regret this I promise"

-NEXT DAY-

The Pikachu woke up suddenly in an unfamiliar surrounding and jumped up in alert, but winced and fell back down, feeling the affects of his injury. "Woah easy there twerp" said a voice with a strange accent. He looked over to see a Meowth sitting on the bed next to his. "You had quite a little battle, at least that's what the kid told me" the Meowth said. "Pika pika, pikachu pika?". "You're at the tavern we're staying at. For whatever reason my partner decided you were worth savin' and brought you back here and patched up ya wounds. I cleaned all of them this mornin' too but he did most of the work". The Pikachu blinked, not knowing any real kindness from humans. "Pikapi pika pika chu pika". "A stupid one that's what. But this one is a bit different from the rest. He wants you around for some reason. In fact I wanted to kill ya last night because I figured you would bring trouble. But he defended you and said you could be a good addition to the team. Even now he's gettin' food and water for ya downstairs. You should probably be crawlin' at his knees thankin' him". As if on cue the door opened to reveal his savior with a small tray in his hands and on it was a tankard of water with was appeared to be Tauros steak and an apple.

"Here you go little guy. I got some Tauros steak, some water and an apple for you." the kid said as he put the tray down and poured some water into the supposed to be ashtray and set it out in front of the Pikachu. "Well? Eat up if you want to get better." the kid says. The Pikachu looked suspiciously at the steak before sniffing it a little, but moments after taking giant bites out of it only stopping to drink the water.

The boy just smiled at the sight while the Meowth chuckled and the sight of the Pikachu hork down a steak that was half his size. "Easy buddy, easy. You'll get sick if you at too fast. Trust me I know from experience." the boy says

The Pikachu stopped its eating and looked at the boy curiously before cautiously walking over to him sniffing the boy that sat on the base of the bed, completely opposite from where he was. Sensing no threat the Pikachu walked over to the boy who sat cross-legged in front of him staring right back at him. The Pikachu jumped up and landed in the boy's lap and raised his head again to sniff the boy once more before jumping to his right shoulder and rubbed his cheek against the boy's causing lighter to erupt from the buy who began to scratch the Pikachu behind the ears earning a soft coo from the Pikachu.

"Alright that's enough touchy feely crap fer now" Meowth said, although he enjoyed his friend gaining another friend he needed to ask the immediate question to the Pikachu before things could get any deeper. It wasn't good to get attached to things that wouldn't stay. "My partner here thinks you would be a good addition to the team if you would accept. The only question is, are you going to stay with us? And before you say anything we are thieves that steal for money or whatever we need and can't afford. The key word was need in that sentence. We don't steal anythin' unnecessary"

The Pikachu brought a hand to its chin for a moment before nodding. What else would he do? Go back to the streets scrounging for food or stay with his new friends that would take care of him if he needed it. Pikachu was no stranger to stealing as well. He had been doing that his entire life, it was all he could do with no family to look after him.

"Alright well I'll be the first to say welcome to the team. Second you're going to be stuck in here for a while because of that injury and you are not allowed to leave unless we allow you to. Break that rule and you're out. I have yet to find a reason to trust you so do what I say and we'll get there"

Pikachu nodded in response so Meowth left the room to go back downstairs to get his own food. "Don't mind him." the boy says "He doesn't trust new comers all that much. Give him time and he'll warm up to you". Pikachu nodded in understanding. he wouldn't immediately trust a stranger either. But let's start to get to know each other better eh? I'll start my name is Ash, Ash Ketchum.

**Chapter 2 is now done. I hoped you all enjoyed it and this added up to over 6,500 words. It was totally worth it though. Can you guess what Pikachu said the second time? It was "What kind of a human helps out street P****okemon? I hope I can continue to right chapters this long because I always enjoy reading stories that are long and detailed. I think I did a little bad on the fight. It would have been better from Pikachu's ****perspective, but I had to make it from Ash's. The next chapter should be up sometime next week if not before. Support, criticism, suggestions, and anything else are always accepted. Thanks for reading and till next time.**

**-novaking2832**


	4. Chapter 3: The Burdens of Man

**Hello again everybody and welcome to chapter three of my story. I was debating whether or not I should get right to when the rest of the story will be taking place or have one more in the past chapter. I guess it would be the present but to the rest of the story it's the past. Anyway thank you to all who commented and I hope you all ****enjoy the chapter. **

**Name Under Construction:**** I get what you mean, Ash didn't just learn English the next day. I skipped ahead about seven years and I figured in that time Ash would be able to learn English and about the world plus its events.**

**Sailor Taichichi Vegeta:**** Sorry I didn't put in the Taillow fight. If I was to put it in though I'm not sure how well I could make it. It would be a slaughter, not really a fight. There will be more fighting later on though, I rated this M for a reason. You're right too, I tend to eavesdrop on people in my study hall blocks during school to catch up on what's going on and the teachers are some of the best sources. I had to put in Pikachu, it would be a crime not to right?**

**I don't own Pokemon**

**Chapter 3: The Burdens of Man**

The bandits were laughing their drunk asses off, and this was starting to annoy him. Here he was, one of the most known mercenaries in Hoenn, Kanto, and Johto watching a bunch of bandits get drunk and dance around like a confused Spinda. It was aggravating to say the least. Sure he has had worse jobs, but that didn't mean he couldn't get frustrated with his current one. It's at times like these when he wishes Meowth was still around to entertain him. If not to entertain him, then at least he would have company. But no, his good luck never held itself up. Instead bad luck plagued him like King Giovanni's soldiers does to Johto. All he needed was for them to go to sleep and he could do this quickly and quietly. Pikachu wasn't even with him, he was making sure that no bandits patrolling around would renter the camp. He wash;t even sure why they were drinking. the sun was halfway down in the sky. It was too early to start drinking.

Ash sighed and muttered to himself "Why don't you just knock yourselfs unconscious you drunken bastards" but as usual, his prayers were left unanswered and the men continued to drink, eat and dance. Why did he agree to do this job again? Oh yeah, he offered to give him a Charizard. A big one at that. He could always use more additions to the team.

Ash continued to sit there waiting for the men to fall asleep when he noticed a small blue light coming from the bushes about 152 degrees to the left of him and he wasn't the only one. "He guys is that a Pokemon?" he heard a bandit ask. Before anyone could answer the blue light shot away front he bushes and towards the bandit that had asked the question and drove itself into his chest pushing him to the ground, and causing blood to erupt from his chest.

"What the fuck was that?" one yelled. Ash just sighed and muttered "Dammit Riley I was here first" with that he burst from the open and quickly impaled his sword into the closets bandit's chest killing him before he hit the ground and dragging all attention from the bushes to him.

"Who the fuck do you think you are coming to are camp and killing two of our men?" the bandit who appeared to be the leader demanded from him.

"Actually the first one wasn't me. But I do need to claim my target before the asshole who did kill that one did." Another figure burst from the bushes where the aura sphere originated from and ran over to where Ash stood "Hey Ranger, how are you doing on such a fine evening?" the to be Aura Guardian asks

"Riley you are such a dick. I was going to wait till they were asleep and then kill them. Now I have to face them in the open putting both our lives at risk here. Do you ever think before you act?" Ash asks, a look of annoyance on his face.

"Nope" Riley says, piping the P a little.

"And you wonder why your "master" hasn't made you an Aura Guardian yet" Ash says putting a lot of sarcasm on the word "master". He had never been okay with that. Having to address people in a way that made them appear greater than him. Sure, he knew many that requested to be called a certain title were better than him in some ways, but that didm;t mean you should go and rub salt in the wound by having them basically say "You are better than me therefore I am weak". It was just wrong and stupid. That didn't mean Ash didm;t know his place. He followed through with formalities and all that formal bullshit, but that did not mean he didn't like it. He was just good at covering it up.

Before Riley could respond a third figure cam from where Riley had originated. "Hello Sabrina, long time hop see" Ash says to his fellow mercenary. "Hello Ranger. Are you trying to steal my jobs again? You know what happened last time you did that, remember?" she says, ending the sentence with a sweet voice. Ash cringed at the memory. She had hung him upside down and left him to a pack of Houndour. Pikachu had cut him down though

"Hey Sabrina. Wow, first Ash now you. All that's missing is Pikachu and it'll be like Olivine all over again." Riley says in a cheery attitude.

Sabrina sighed "Riley if you keep bringing up Olivine than I'm going to have to kick your ass all the way back to Iron Island"

"Love you too Sabrina"

The bandits were just staring at all of them in shock. They were being completely ignored, like they were nothing. "Shut the fuck up all of you. You just killed two of our men and now you are yelling at each other like a bunch of kids. We will not be ignored like we're cannon fodder" the bandit leader yelled

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning" Riley says, a stupid grin still plastered on his face

Ash just groaned "Your eighteen for Arceus' sake. Fucking act like it will you?"

"ENOUGH!" one of the nineteen bandits yelled and charged forward towards the closest of them, which happened to be the physic who drew the dagger she had strapped to her belt. She held the dagger pointing directly at the incoming bandit, showing her inexperience and lack of knowledge about combat. But then again, she wasn't formidable for her combat skills. The bandit reached her and swung his sword in a horizontal arc downwards heading from left to right at Sabrina. If you paid attention to her eyes like Ash did, you would notice that they began to glow and the sword "magically" missed, going just above her head and giving her a wide and clear shot at his right set of ribs. She did not let the opportunity go to waste and plunged her knife deep into his ribs before pulling it our quickly and jumping backwards waiting for the next opponent.

The entire bandit group erupted into chaos and they all ran at one of them, weapons drawn and eyes full of anger. It was never good to attack while you're angry. Or have any emotion when in combat. This was one of the few lessons that Meowth hadn't taught him, instead it had been Riley who taught him that.

The first three men approached Riley and Ash and one attacked the same way the other had attacked Sabrina and a second stabbed at the same time towards Ash while the third drove his halberd at Riley who sidestepped and attempted to stab back, but the bandit jumped back before the blade made contact. Before he got out of attacking range though he swiped his halberd as he dropped back and managed to catch Riley's open torso and made a small gash.

Ash had to deal with the immediate threat and parried the strike coming from above with his dagger, causing the sword to slide down the dagger and hit the ground and swept the sword being lunged at him to the side before bringing the dagger he parried with, now held high above the bandit who was bent down due to the driving force he had behind his swing and drove it between the bandits shoulder blades. That one was down, but not dead.

He focused back on the second opponent who had brought his sword back it a defensive position. His stance was lousy though. His feet were parallel to each other making him squat awkwardly. Ash took advantage and swiped his swords to the side, which the bandit parried as expected and ripped the dagger from the falling bandits shoulder blades and drove it his open right flank. This one was down as well, but another bandit was already on him bringing his axe in a side swipe. The dagger did not have the strength in it to block such a powerful strike forcing him to bring his sword across his own body to block the strike. A fourth bandit took advantage and swung a cleaver across Ash's vulnerable flank leaving a two and a half inch gash going from his waste towards his sternum.

Ash winced and jumped back, ignoring the pain shooting through his chest. He noticed Riley had dealt with the bandit with the halberd and three others, now taking on a fifth. He appeared to be on the defensive though and had few cuts and bruises along his chest and face. Most likely from a few punches thrown in the middle of combat. He stole a glance at Sabrina who had only two bodies around her and appeared to be unscathed. Three men were cautiously advancing towards her however.

Ash brought his attention back to his enemies though and feinted a downward strike from the right at the man with the cleaver who brought said cleaver up to parry with the flat of his blade, but Ash quickly redirected his blade bringing his forehand strike to a downward stab like you would with a knife and drove it through the man's ribs into his heart killing him instantly. The body however took the blade with it as it fell leaving Ash with only a knife and the bow he had strapped to his back, which was almost utterly useless in the current situation.

"Alrght kid, you ain't half bad." The bandit wielding the axe says.

"Thanks, I am glad that someone apprecia-" just as he was about to finish his sentence he threw the knife at the bandit, catching him by surprise and killing him as the dagger entered the gap between his neck and his shoulder blade, cutting through the bandit's collar bone. It was an old trick that worked surprisingly well. While you are talking to someone you make a quick strike at a vital point in their body hoping for a one hit kill.

Ash ran towards his sword, it being the more suitable weapon to take from the one that had taken it with him when he fell, and pulled it out of the bandit's ribs and immediately got in a defensive stance. Awaiting the bandits that had stopped a few meters away, judging their opponent. One got tired of waiting however and ran at Ash bringing his sword in an upward strike from the ground, one of the worst attack to make on someone in a defensive stance. Ash simply parried the blade away driving the man's sword back and leaving his entire body open to an attack. Ash took the easy route and stabbed the bandit in the heart and pulled his sword out quickly when he saw another advancing from behind the now dead bandit's still standing body. He was bot fast enough however, because the bandit used his slowly falling comrade as a shield and pushed the dead body at Ash causing him to lose his balance and stumble back leaving the bandit an opportunity to strike his chest but Ash fell to the ground before he got the chance only to be back on his feet not a second later.

"Shit" Ash curses. His arrows lay strewn on the ground. This was why he used stealth, their sheer numbers were enough to kill him. Sure he had Riley and Sabrina, but that didn't make this a guaranteed win. He regained his balance and struck back only to parried. Ash began to strike small low powered blows at the bandit tiring the man out fast and it wasn't long before he saw his opening and plunged his sword through the neck and out of his back. He got back into his stance and deflected a blow from the left to only to kiss the fist of his attacker's left hook. He recovered though and drove his own fist into the man's gut, knocking the wind out of him and kneeing him in the face when he doubled over simultaneously dropping his weapon and and clutching his stomach. The bandit fell to the ground and Ash wasted no time stabbing him while he was on the ground defenseless.

He saw only three bandits left, not counting their leader who had been watching all of them fight while his men had thrown themselves at the enemy. Ash did a quick head count. There were nineteen when they had started and he had taken out seven and Sabrina four. Riley had taken out five and also was watching the bandits as they slowly retreated back to their leader. This was good, only four left now. The bandit leader spoke "You two, take the Guardian and you the girl. I'll take the brat with the bow. The bandits complied with his orders and began to attack their targets with renewed vigor, but the leader just slowly walked up to Ash. Taking his time as he went.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you" he says as he reaches Ash's position.

"Fuck you too" Ash responds, taking the defensive stance. The leader slowly took out his longsword from his back, as if trying to intimidate Ash to run away. He brought the sword up and rested the flat of the blade on his shoulder. He took one step forwards and lunged, bring the sword as if to cut Ash in half. Ash rolled under the strike and spun around to face his opponent again. "Well aren't you the speedy little Jolteon?" he says before beginning a barrage of attacks, not allowing Ash to take the offensive. Ash could feel the energy draining out from him. He was getting tired fast and needed to end this quick if he was going to survive. Ash ducked at a slash across his body and drove his fist into the leader'a gut, winding the man and bringing his sword up to stab the leader's heart, but found that his sword had been grabbed the blade by the leader causing blood to erupt from his hand and trickle down the sword. The leader held fast however and Ash couldn't seem to break his grip till let go of his sword and spun 180 degrees into the leader so they were both looking the same way and elbowed him in to the gut and grabbed his falling sword before it had dropped an inch from the leader's grip and stabbed backwards into the gut of the leader in a amazing display of speed with his hands still holding the blade about three quarters of the way to the hilt, cutting into his hands.

The bandit leader slid off the sword and fell to the ground dead. He focused his attention bad to his allies and saw Riley finish off his first opponent only to get cut by the other bandit and pushed to the ground. Ash wasted no time and took his bow from his back and grabbed an arrow of the ground and sent the arrow flying at the man, knowing it was good the second he released it. He watched as it pierced throughout the man's heart at an angle that barley caused the head of the arrow to sprout from the bandit's back.

He looked to Sabrina to see her on the ground with a large dirt smudge on her face and looking just to the left of bandit directly at Ash. He was sure she could;t see him though and searched for the closest arrow but before he could grab one he heard his lifelong companion's call

"Pika-chuuuuuu" Pikachu calls as he sent out a bolt of electricity that fried the final bandit instantly.

Ash sighed in relief. He didn't enjoy Riley's company all too much, but he had no problem with Sabrina. He would risk his life for both however. He began to walk over to Riley to check on his injuries but saw the first bandit he had taken out take the cleaver from another bandit and draw his arm back to throw it at Riley.

Ash had no time to react, Sabrina could't see anything, Pikachu was facing Sabrina, and Riley sat on the ground, eyes wide staring at the bandit.

Just as the bandit was about to throw a blue sphere came flying out of nowhere and drive into the bandit tearing his stomach open.

"Riley you were very impulsive here. If you hadn't had Ash and Sabrina for backup then you would be dead on the ground. What made you think you could take on nineteen bandits alone?" an angry voice asks Riley.

Riley just lowered his head, his hat covering his eyes. Sir Aaron emerged from the trees and sighed "Get up Riley, you need medical attention." Riley complied and stood up but kept his head down and began to walk int the direction Sir Aaron came from. "Aaron turned to Ash, Sabrina, and Pikachu next "You come with us as well. I'll treat any wounds you have as well." He turned around and began to walk away.

Ash walked over to Sabrina "Are you okay?" he asks

"Yeah I'm fine except for the punch to the face one gave me. That last one Pikachu took out threw dirt in my eyes when he was rising up after I pushed him to the ground with my physic abilities. Kind of a shit way too go if you ask me"

"Well then it's a good thing you aren't dying that way then isn't it? Come get up and Aaron will have a clean cloth to wipe your eyes with. I'd take doe of the bandit's cloths, but I doubt that's healthy"

"No kidding. I can still smell the alcohol reeking off them. And who's Aaron" Sabrina says as she rose and put a hand on Ash's arm so he could lead the way. They followed in the direction that the Aura Guardians had left in and soon came upon a camp site with a small fire pit and tow tents. Outside Aaron was treating the cuts on Riley's chest only glancing in their direction when they arrived.

"Hello again. Ash get a cloth from my tent and use it to wipe her eyes off, I'm a little busy at the moment." Aaron says as he returns his attention back to his student.

Ash bristled a little at being ordered around but grabbed the cloth none the less. "Hold still and close your eyes" Ash says. He took out his canteen of water from the tent as well, wetting the cloth with it and proceeded to wipe off the dirt and dust from Sabrina's face with it. He took a good look at her face when he was done and was satisfied with the results. "Okay, you can open your eyes again". Sabrina squinted her eyes for a moment before slowly opening them and blinking a few times to get the last of the dirt out.

"Thanks Ash I owe you one" Sabrina says looking at the raven haired mercenary.

"Not just me, you owe Pikachu a big favor" Ash says, a smile gracing his face for the first time in a while

Sabrina chuckled at that "I guess I do. She bent down and scratched Pikachu behind his ears earning a soft coo from him. The moment ended quickly when Riley took a sharp intake of air causing all attention to be diverted to him. Aaron had just put on some Oran beery paste on one of his slashes and while the healing effects were quick to respond. The initial application of the paste always stung like a bitch.

"Alright Ash your turn" Aaron says looking directly at Ash

"I don't know what you're talking about" Ash says glaring at Aaron. Stubbornly refusing any help for his obvious wound

"Don't be childish and accept my hospitality for once" Aaron says with an calm look on his face

Ash continued to glare, but took a seat next to Riley and took off his shirt, much to the dismay of Sabrina who quickly blushed and turned away. At least Riley had bandages covering his chest. Aaron looked at the wound fro a moment before taking out a Sitrus berry and some doe pottery handle with what looked to be an ashtray and began to grind up the berry. He was in no rush considering the blood had already stopped flowing and all that Ash really needed was some rest.

"So Ash have you reconsidered my offer?" Aaron asks, interrupting the silence that had loomed beforehand and looking up from his work to look Ash in the eye. Riley looked up in curiosity and Sabrina turned around, just as curious.

Ash just glared at him for a while before answering "No. My answer remains as it did from last time" he says coldly

Aaron sighs before putting some of the paste in his cut "I really wish you would join us. You're wasting your potential as a mercenary when you could be fighting for a good cause."

"Wait, wait, wait. What did you offer Ash?" interrupted Riley

Aaron looked at him for a moment "I offered him place in our ranks at the Iron Island"

Riley looked at Aaron incredulously. "You would offer a complete outsider and a mercenary a place in our ranks? Are you insane? The council would never approve of that and he does;t even have any aura to use. We'd be training a civilian" Riley shouted at Aaron

"Riley, silence yourself." Aaron says harshly. "Ash has more skill than you know and as for his aura capabilities, well he has more aura than most of the Guardians will ever have."

Riley just looked at Aaron wide eyed, Sabrina was looking at Ash curiously, like she had just found a new Pokemon that she wanted to dissect and Ash just continued to glare at Aaron. "How does he have more aura than me? He has no training of any sort. Just the guidance of his friend"

"Because he was born with it or he managed to steal, but no one knows how to do that except Mew. In any case with the right training he could become a powerful Aura Guardian, and your comrade" Aaron says.

"Really? You're going to train Ash? Why? You only took me on because the council ordered it. You never voluntarily train apprentices."

"Wait just a second" interrupted Ash "I have not accepted the offer and you're already talking about it like I'm your apprentice"

"Well why don't you Ash?" Riley asks "The life is just like the one you're living except we are respected and feared almost everywhere. People look up to us and treat us like heroes". "Yeah Ash that sounds like a pretty good deal to me. Why would;t you take it?" Sabrina says

Ash gritted his teeth "Because of personal reasons" he says, but this time he just looks at Sir Aaron sadly.

-FLASHBACK-

_A fifteen year old Ash stands outside the door of a rather large house just inside the Hoenn region knocking on the door. _

_"Coming" he heard a gruff voice say before he saw a panel flip open to look at the visitor. "Who are you?" an old voice asks the strange boy on his front porch._

_"Professor Oak?" the boy asks. The old man nodded. "My name is Ash Ketchum, I believe that you were supposed to be expecting me"_

_The professor's eyes widened when he heard the ahem of the boy he thought was long dead. "ASH!" he yelled and closed the panel before unlocking several different locks that could be heard through the door and then opened it. The old man ran out and hugged the startled boy. "I thought you were dead" he exclaimed. He released the boy from his surprisingly strong hold and held him at arms length. "My, my. You've grown so much. Last time I saw you, you had been in a crib playing with toys. But please come in. It's not safe here anymore" Oak said before he ushered Ash in and taking a look around then closing the door. He brought Ash into his home and led him to a small living room with some windows pointing towards a river that Ash was all too familiar with. _

_"So Ash, how have you been?" Professor Oak asked_

_Seriously? Ash thought this is hoe he's going to start this off? "I'm...Okay Mr. Oak" _

_"Please just call me Professor Oak or Professor. Mr. Oak was my father" he says with a grin_

_What the hell is wrong with this guy? Ash thought "Look professor, I have grown up without knowing who I was or who my family was. I am here because I found this note in a boat that apparently brought me to where I grew up. The note says, however that you were supposed to take care of me. So I would like to ask did you know my __parents?"_

_Oak paused for a moment. "I knew you mother well, but your father. He left the moment he figured out your mother was pregnant with you". He paused o gauge Ash's reaction, but Ash was looking at him intently, wanting him to continue. "Your mother's name was Delia Ketchum and she was the most lovely and caring person you would ever meet. But she was purity in an impure world. Giovanni sought out your mother on a revenge quest and undoubtably took he life. I'm sorry."_

_"Don't be. From what I can see, there was nothing you could have done that would have prevented this from happening. But tell me, who was my father?" Ash asked_

_Professor__ Oak sighed " He is one of the greatest men to walk this earth. His name is Sir Aaron, and Aura Guardian. He was indirectly responsible for your mother's death. He and the other Aura Guardians had been attacking Giovanni's forces and pushing them out of Sinnoh and Hoenn. When the King learned that the only real threat standing in his way of taking the regions had a wife and a son on his doorstep. Well you know exactly what he did."_

_"Wait, why did my father leave us? What reason did he have?" Ash asked_

_"I don't know my boy. I really don't know. But don't blame him, he knew nothing of Giovanni's plans and when he learned what happened. He stopped all attacks against Giovanni, not wanting any of the other Guardian's families to be harmed. I haven;t seen him since he left."  
_

_"I see" Ash said and looked at the ground, his hair covering his eyes. _

_"I'm sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear, but that us what happened. You were born in Pallet Town, which is now nothing more than burnt wood and cinders. Your mother was __going to send you here and when the forces showed up, she would hide in the woods and wait for everything to blow over. But their was only a few soldiers that came and a woman on a Salamance. They arrived a lot sooner than expected and I was already down here. I didm;t know that you were alive until now though. I thought she didn't send you off in time."_

_"Thank you professor. Do you mind if I stay here for a little, like two weeks or so?" Ash raised his head and had a small smile on his face and a slightly embarrassed look adorned on it._

_The professor just smiled "Of course you can, come around at anytime you want. After all you're practically family" _

_"In that case can Pikachu stay here too? We're sort of a package deal" he said _

_"Yes, yes. Stay as long as you like, you're always welcome here. I wish Gary was still here. You and him could have been good friends. You might still, if he ever comes home."_

_-END FLASHBACK-_

"It's getting dark out, let's go to sleep. I'll take first watch" Ash says changing the topic and leaving no more room to ask questions. Even though the professor had told him not to hold a grudge, he felt like Aaron deserved his disrespect. Aaron always tried to get him to go to the Iron Islands with him, but where was he when he actually was needed huh? Sitting on and island with his thumb up his ass, that's where.

The others could tell he was not going to let this go any farther and prepared to go to sleep. "I have my own gear at a campsite on the other side of the bandit camp. I'll go get and be back here in a little" Ash says. "Oh Ranger, could you get mine too? It's not far from yours, just a bit to the left". Sabrina asks, receiving a nod of confirmation from Ash as he walked away.

About ten minute later he came back with Sabrina's equipment and another ten minutes later, with his own. Ash sat down at the edge of the clearing so he could have a full view of everything that would move around the edges of the area and he could hear anything behind him. The others either went into their tents or in Sabrina's case, set up her tent then go into it. After a few hours Ash let Pikachu fall asleep in his lap, softly petting the electric type. He ;et his eyes close for a moment and made a big sigh.

"Long day?" a voice asks him. Ash's eyes snapped open and his head shot up, his brown eyes meeting Aaron's blue eyes.

"What do you want? I have about an hour or so till I wake you up for your shift" he says after checking the moon for the relative time.

"Nothing really. I just couldn't sleep"

That was a load of Tauros shit and he knew it. He probably planned to get Ash alone front the start. "Yeah, right" Ash says sarcastically "I'm sure you must be tired after using that aura sphere. But at least you were there for someone this time." Ash would never pass up the chance to make a crack about Aaron not being there. After his remark he saw Aaron wince a little.

Aaron sighs "I suppose i should have seen that coming he says before sitting cross-legged opposite of Ash "But you don't understand that as head of the Aura Guardians I cannot have a son as it would distract from helping the people. I had to serve Queen Rin regardless if Delia got pregnant anyway."

"Oh so you were hoping to get with Queen Rin too huh? Well you sure did a great job protecting her didn't you?" Ash knew that had to have been a sire spot. After the Aura Guardians had fallen back to the Iron Islands Queen Rin had been imprisoned and when Giovanni took Sinnoh and Hoenn, he was probably going to make her his wife even though he already had kid. And boy was that kid truly a basted son, Ash had seen him once and he kept going around addressing everyone as "peasant". How stuck up do you have to be to address everyone, even some nobles, as peasant?

"It was because Giovanni's attacking the others Guardian's families that I pulled back. Queen Rin understood when Giovanni offered to put them all the families on the coast so we could go to them if we wanted, but not be able to take them back to Iron Island"

"Him so abandoned a second wife too. Wow you must hold the title for wold's shittiest husband"

"I wasn't involved in Queen Rin romantically. Even if I wanted to I would have been cast out"

"Cast out eh? That's what mom should have done to you before you fell in "love" so deeply" Ash says putting air quote and a lot of sarcasm on the word "love".

"I did love your mother. She understood the responsibility I had to undertake and accepted it. I donut see why you can't"

"Because I can understand having to go away for work, but you straight out abandoned her, the Professor told me you left without a word. How low do you have to be to not leave without saying goodbye"

Aaron had nothing to say to that. What could he say, his son's hate of him ran deep. "I'm not asking you to like me, I'm asking you to do what you were born to do. Riley told me all about the aura training he gave you while I sent him to be on his own for his solitary training. You already have the basics down, if you just came with us back to the Ir-"

"Enough" Ash says in a dangerously clam voice. "I am not going with you to be an Aura Guardian. Beside according to you I would "distract you from helping the people"

"You wouldn't if you were training. You and Riley would be the top of the students if you came back with us. With you we could take back Hoenn and even strike at Giovanni. I know of a path that runs through Hoenn, completely unknown to Giovanni that could carry an army straight to Giovanni's palace. It's just inside the Tree of Beginning."

"Aaron I said enough. This isn't my war to fight, I'm just a mercenary trying to make a living."

"This is your war more than anyone's, Don't you want to avenge your fallen family?"

"My family is a pack of Mightyena, a Sceptile, and a Combusken. If Giovanni decides that they are suddenly a threat to him, then I'll join this war. But until then, fuck off"

"Ash, I'm sorry, I truly am. But can't we make up for the lost time by starting now? Riley may be on solitary training again, but You and I can go back and get you in as an Aura Guardian and you can join him."

"Is that your idea of making up for lost time? Having me train with Riley? Sorry but I'm going to decline that offer, again"

"You know that's not what I meant. But if you are insistent on not training with me, could at least stick around with Riley for a while? Not for me, but for him. You saw what he did out there, diving head first into the enemy and almost killing himself. What happens when he goes up against someone who is actually trained? Could you at least go around with him and help him mature more? He is too impulsive and could use the guidance of someone else his age."

"How do you know how old I am?"

"I don't"

Ash snorted "I didn't think so well I'm nineteen and as for Riley, maybe. I'll sleep on it. Speaking of which, goodnight." With that Ash stood up, rousing Pikachu who had still slept on Ash's lap throughout the hushed conversation and walked to his things and began to set up his tent for the night and then crawled inside with Pikachu to retire for the night.

**And this ends chapter 3. Sorry about the sloppiness toward stye end there I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to work in this, someone at my school used an app called Yik Yak (allows you to post anonymous messages on sites, in this case the school website) to anonymously post that they were going to blow up the school. It was probably some kid who didn't want to take a test or something. They ended me up out in the newly fresh 1 foot of snow and falling snow in a light collared shirt and some jeans though. My school has no uniforms or anything. I am a little disappointed with the kind of abrupt end to this chapter, hopefully I'll find better stopping points for the later chapters, which remind me. I'm finally done with the skipping around. Next chapter Ash is going to be 24 years old and stay that age throughout the rest of the story, unless I ****have him discover his birthday and have or something. Anyway comments, suggestions, hate and anything else is always welcome. **

**-novaking2832**


	5. Chapter 4: The Darkness within Ourselves

**Hey guys, this might be a little late because I had MCAS this entire week but I will try to get this to you in time. So thanks to everyone who clicked on this story, I really appreciate it. Anyway this is about a year later so ash is 20 years old.**

**101TheEditor:**** Oh yeah, you were a huge help for me when I published. So thanks again and good luck with The Aura Will Prevail, I eagerly await the next chapter**

**Sailor Taichichi Vageta: Well i had planned a action flashback for that involving Giovanni's men apprehending Sabrina, but I had explain how Ash knew that Aaron was his father and Would you have really wanted to have two flashback's in one story? Well Ash will do that, but that will happen later in the story. Aaron really won;t be all that involved anymore, Riley might be, but Ash will have no aura control and won;t be going around firing off aura spheres left and right. Ash was about 19 in the last chapter and is going to be in his mid 20s (probably 24ish) in this one.**

**Rupbyspe: I've seen stranger comments, but thanks. I have trouble finding good places to leave off though. Anyway thanks again and good luck with the pokemon academy and the controllers of the earth and sea.**

**Chapter 4: The Darkness within Ourselves**

The clanging of bars, the footsteps of the guards, the sounds of the other prisoners, the sound of the crackling fire that seemed to laugh at your captivity. These are all the things you had to get used when you are one of Giovanni's few prisoners. Most of the others were taken away after a few days to be executed or they simply died of starvation and dehydration. Some even took their own lives. She heard a man bash his head into a wall so many time that he fell unconscious and bled out only a few cells over. She still has nightmares about that. The only small comfort was the Pokemon the guards tried to make her kill when she asked for a pillow. A small Eevee, the guards told her to kill and use the fur for whatever she wanted. She could never do that, she could never hurt an innocent Pokemon. Another small comfort was a pane less window. They probably put it there to show her an escape she couldn't reach, or make her colder when the wind blew in her cell. But to her it was a way to see the world that she had been sealed off from since she was a child. She could barely remember her own parent's faces anymore, or her brother's

Then there were the things that made her already horrible conditions worse. The main one being an overly cocky, arrogant, bastard of a son Drew. He came to her cell often, more often than she would like, and gave her roses. After he left, she would always use them as kindling for the fire. They weren't much, but they did do something to make it warmer. She didn't understand why he came around to her cell. Did he like her? Or was he just messing with her to make everything worse, trying to show her what she was missing out in the real world. She didn't care, he kept on coming no matter how mean or rude she was to him. Playing it off as if she were playing hard to get, claiming that he didm;t put her in there and if it were up to him, she would be out of the cell. She didn't believe him, he was full of shit. But he was the only one she would talk to, even if talking meant yelling at him or insuring him. She used to talk to the other people, one girl named Solidad was put in the cell next to her. She had been there for a month and they had become good friends. But the guards came in and had Solidad beat in front of her. Just to scare her, soon Solidad was taken away, as to where she doesn't know, but she would never talk to the other prisoners whenever they came in.

"Vee!". A small cry from her only companion awoke her. Eevee always did when _he_ came.

"Hello my dearest" a sweet voice that would make most girls heats flutter said

"What do you want cabbage head" May said as she sat up from the small and uncomfortable piece of shit she called her bed

"Now, now. Is that anyway to treat your husband?" Drew said, am arrogant smile written on his face

"You are not and never will be my husband you arrogant prick" May said, now on her feet, an frustrated expression on her face

"Oh but you will be, I have told you this from day one, haven't I?"

"Shut up and leave"

"Oh you are so cold" he said in a sarcastic voice "Just like this cell perhaps if you would allow me to come in their and warm your bed with you"

"Why don't you just piss off already" May said

"If that is what you wish, but one day you will be mine May Maple. Remember that." he ended as he walked away, dropping a rose through the bars.

She was alone again save for her friend. No one else was in the tower. She knew she was in Saffron, in the top right tower of the castle that stood looming over the city. If she pushed her cheek flat against the wall she could see some of the city and the edge of another tower. That's how she knew where she was. I look a little bit like Petalburg, like her home

"Vee?" her normal type friend asked.

May put on a brave face "Yeah I'm fine, just reminiscing is all"

Her name was May Maple, she was seventeen years old and had been in this place since she was twelve and she was the only daughter of King Norman, who was now known as the Rebel King. She knew he wouldn't give up on a war. At least not without causing as much trouble as possible for King Giovanni. She knew that from what little she could remember about her father. All she longed for was to go home, or at least see her family once in a while. It would make this place almost bearable. But alas, there was no such hope that Giovanni would let her see her parents. He came to see her once in a while. Simply to see if she was still alive. He was disappointed every time when he saw her glaring at him, Hell's fury written in her eyes.

What got to her the most though was the lack of things to do. She could tend to the fire, play with Eevee, read, or think. She hated doing the last one. It always ended up with her thinking about he family and made her want to cry. She refused to cry in front of these guards, she had done that too many times already.

Her favorite was to read. She loved playing with Eevee, but that could only last so long. Reading could last her for a while and passed the time. It helped a lot because like this today she would wake up and fall right bad asleep till late afternoon. There was an entire library somewhere in this castle and she could grab one book at a time if the guard was nice. Right now she was reading a book called "The Phony War". It was about when an Aura Guardian went into the Tree of Beginning and used his aura to stop a battle from raging over the land he protected whig was not involved in the war. The book never mentioned a name though.

First she began to do her hair for a while before deciding to read a little more ways into the book, she picked it out from under the pile of hay that was her mattress and began to read. With some guards she had to keep the book hidden because they had taken her books away a few times. Soon though Eevee demanded attention and began to nip at her fingers. She chuckled and took a metal nail that had come out of the window and used it as a bookmark. Not the most effective bookmark but the only one she had none the less.

She played around with Eevee, chasing her around, being chased around, playing silly games, the only things that could make her smile anymore. Soon thug Eevee tired. These things only lasted an hour or so. So she went back to reading. And when she was nearing the end of the book, she heard the footsteps of someone coming down the hallway.

"Lunch time" said a guard dressed in the standard armor of the Kanto Kingdom. Only this one had the secret service logo on his shoulder. A red "R". That's how you knew if it was one of Giovanni's special forces. He opened the gate a crack and slid the bowl across the floor and locked the gate again, he the proceeded to walk down the corridor that he came from.

Tonight's "feast" was just a small bowl of broth with what appeared bits of old meat and bread broken up in it. The guards must've been in a good mood today. She took a few pieces of the meet and bread out and gave them to Eevee and began to pick out some of the bread and meat for herself. Soon all that was left was the broth. She drank about tow thirds of it before sliding the bowl over to the patiently waiting Eevee who began to lap up the rest.

This is what her meals usually consisted of. It got rid of needing to give her food and water separately. They thought it was genius to do it all in one bowl. Once Eevee was done she left the bowl by the door so a guard could pick it up whenever and returned to her book. It had been about twenty or so minutes when she heard the door open again. She didn't manage to hide the book in time though.

"Hello again beautiful" Drew said. It was only him, it didn't matter whether she had the book out or not when it was just him.

Her only response was a glare before turning back to her book.

"Is that anyway to treat your husband?" he said in a mock hurt voice.

She didn't even acknowledge him that time, she knew it angered him whenever she ignored him and it was showing.

"You know, I gave the guards the night off so we could spend some time together" He said with a suggestive smirk on his face after recovering after his initial failure.

No response

"Hey I'm talking to you" he said, annoyance dripping into his voice.

Again no response

"Hey! Listen to me when I talk to you!" the anger was clear on his face

Not even a glance

"You bitch, pay attention to me!"

Still no response

But what did turn her head was when the cage door opened and he came storming in, throwing the keys on the floor.

"I said pay attention to me!" he roared as he grabbed the book and threw it away. She began to sit up from her bed but her threw her back pinned her beneath him. Eevee jumped from the floor and bit his hand that had her arm pinned above her head along with the other one.

He yelled in pain and threw Eevee over to the there side of the cage. Her body making a loud CLANG as it connected with the bars. He turned his attention back to her. "No one's getting in my way now" he said as he began to lean his face downwards towards May's and was a mere inches away when May did the one thing that she could do.

She kneed him in the balls as hard as she could.

He let out a loud squeal that should've come from a little girl. She pushed him off her and kicked him once more for good measure before running and grabbing the slowly rising Eevee and the keys that lay foolishly on the ground and turned and locked the door and jumped back right before Drew's hand plunged through the bars in an attempt to grab her. He looked at her angrily, "Just give me back the keys and we'll pretend this never happened" he said, the sweetest smile he could must brought up up his face.

"I'm impressed that you can stand after I crushed your fucking balls" she yelled before throwing the keys into another cell and running through the door. She ran down the corridor that led to the staircase which would bring her down to ground level. She reached the bottom of the stairs and carefully peaked around the corner. Two guards were walking in the opposite direction and there was no one else around. It was perfect.

She quietly ran to a set of double doors and slowly opened them to reveal someone's bedroom. She was hoping it would be the way out, but now that she thought about it, that would be further down the hallway. She began to run once again, Eevee still in her arms and began to check any room that looked like it could lead outside. At the end of the hallway Eevee jumped out of her arms and ran towards a door and sniffed the bottom of it.

"Eevee" she called and May ran over and cautiously opened the door to reveal a lowering sun and some soldiers milling about, going around on business. May picked up Eevee and closed the door. She ran behind the statue of a Dragonite that stood on either side of the door and began to look for a way out. She could only see two. One was to jump off the wall into the ocean, tow was to steal a horse and ride away. She liked option tow better.

There were a few Rapidashes tethered to a poll and some carriages and a few Ponyta that appeared to be jun training. Her most promising choice were the Rapidashes that were tethered to the poll at the gate. She just had to wait till someone untethered one so she could take it. As if to answer her prayers, a servant of some sort came over and began to untether one and just as he untied the tether he was shoved to the ground.

"Sorry!" May said to him as she mounted the Rapidash. With the click of her heals the Rapidash shot off like a bullet. She rode through the yelling soldiers and through the closing gates that led out of the castle to burst into her freedom. She made no celebration though, with Eevee placed between her legs she rode through the city blowing past civilians and guards. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she ran through the gate of the city and continued to ride on.

The wind was blowing through her hair as she rode away, as to where she didn't know. As long as it was away from Saffron City she was fine with it. She turned her head back to look once more at the city that had been her prison for so many years of her life, but her attention was brought to the horsemen that were currently on her tail and gaining. She clicked her heals to get the Rapidash to go faster and it bolted away, but it seemed to have no effect and the men continued to slowly gain distance on her. Suddenly though, the slightly dead grass she rode on turned a sickly shade of black. The dirt had been replaced by mud and the air became fowl with decay and a heavy fog.

She turned back to look ahead of her and saw bogs everywhere in front of her. She pulled on the reins of her Rapidash, but that Rapidash didn't make it in time and fell head first into a bog and bringing it back into the air and sending May and Eevee to the other side. It tried to rise to the surface and get out, thrashing everywhere in an attempt to save its life to no avail.

"Shh shhhhhhh. Please be quiet" May whispered. "I know, its okay, everything's going to be okay" she whispered. The Rapidash stopped its thrashing and looked directly into May eyes as it sank lower into the bog. May looked back, eyes welling up a little with tears. She turned around and stood up. Before running away from the fast approaching voiced and into the forest that seemed to close around, as if not letting her back out.

She ran and ran, as fast as she could. She couldn't hear them, but they were following her, she just knew. She tripped over something for a moment and fell to the ground. She turned to see what it was and saw a Paras rise from the muck and scum on the ground. This Paras was weird though. Just like everything around it, it was jet black with dull grey sports on the mushrooms it had on its shell. It began to crawl towards May and released a black looked gas from its mushrooms before scurrying away.

May stood up quickly but began to choke on the gas and Eevee did the same. She turned to run away again but fell down once more, she managed to get up again and began to stumble through the woods, Eevee in tow. Soon she began to see things though. Creatures burst from the trees and the dead rose from the ground. She screamed and ran away only to fall once again. She looked up to see her arms melting in front of her and screamed at the tip of her lungs before falling into unconsciousness.

-IN SAFFRON CITY-

King Giovanni sat on his throne with a persian on his lap and an angry expression on his face. "So let me get this straight, you gave the guards temporary leave, you charged into her cell, dropped the keys on the floor, got kneed in your balls, and got locked in the cell"

Drew kept his eyes to the floor but nodded his head.

"Well what are you still doing here?! Go out an get her before she gets to a town and gets away. She the only thing that's keeping Norman from declaring an all out war"

"Well it's just that she ran into the Dark Forest. The men who were chasing her followed but only three of the seven came back and one was on the brink of insanity"

Giovanni let out a long sigh. You could easily tell that through his calm demeanor he was furious "Go and find someone who had been through the Dark Forest and get her back, now" he said in a dangerously low voice.

Drew stood up straight immediately "y-yes sir, ri-right away sir" he may be the son of Giovanni but his father did not tolerate failure. Drew turned on his heal and sped walked through the throne room taking six guards with him before leaving. "We're heading down to the taverns. Each of you split up to a different tavern and try to find someone that has been in the Dark Forest before. Of you don't find anyone then meet back at the palace gateway" with that the soldiers dispersed, heading into different areas of the city.

Soon though they all ended up at the the palace gateway with no one to accompany them. "Alright so does anyone have news about someone who's been in there?" Drew asked

A few of them shook their heads and a mother just said "no". "I had heard from "The Persian's Claws" that there was a man who had been in there" one spoke out. "Yeah me too, they said he wears a dark cloak and an Aura Guardian hat, even though his isn't one. They tad me he is a mercenary for hire an goes simply by "Ranger". He apparently never gives his name out. He usually stays in the Obsidian Onix while he looks for work"

"Then that's our next destination" Drew said and they rode for The Obsidian Onix.

-INSIDE THE OBSIDIAN ONIX-

The door swung open to reveal the son of King Giovanni who was flanked by six guards. All heads turned and glared at the new arrival. There were a few unruly looking men at a table close to the door, two people at the bar and a few others sitting at some other tables. Drew walked over to the bar counter immediately and sat down. One of the other men sat up and left and the bartender came over, knowing what happens if you get in the bad side of a prince. "Hello peasant, I don't suppose you have the Ranger here by any chance do you?" Drew asked in a snide voice.

"By whom do you mean the Ranger sir?" the bartender asked, he knew exactly who the prince wanted but he preferred to face the King's wrath than the Ranger's.

"You know, the Ranger. He always stays here when he's in Saffron does he not? So where is he?"

Sir I don't think he's here right now. Perhaps I could deliver a message from you to him?" the bartender asked

Drew hand shot over the table and grabbed the man's collar and he pulled the man roughly over the counter so his torso was practically laying on the counter. "Lie to me again and I'll have your fucking fingers ripped from your hands" Drew said menacingly.

Suddenly a hand shot put and gripped Drew's wrist and began to squeeze painfully causing him to release the bartender. "If you have business with me I suggest you take it up with me and not my host" staid he only other man at the counter, his grip still slowly closing in Drew's wrist. The man had raven black hair and but Drew could only see oner of his brown eyes. He had a black mask that rested around hid neck. He was dressed in a black cloak that had a grey strap with a thick black stripe going through it that only left a sliver of grey visible on each side of the stripe going from his left shoulder but halfway down the strap a second part attached and wrapped around his other shoulder. His left side was hidden in the shadows, but Drew was on his right so he could see part of his face even though he was facing the counter.

"Let go of my hand now!" Drew squealed out. The Ranger obliged and let go. "Are you the Ranger that has been into the Dark Forest's deepest depths and come back out alive?"

"What of it?" he said still facing the counter

"By order of King Giovanni you are hereby employed to bring us into the forest and bring back an escaped prisoner"

"No"

Drew paused in surprise "What do you mean no?"

"I'm not going to get mixed up in the King's business, it'll be nothing but trouble" the Ranger said.

"This is not a request, this is an order by king Giovanni himself"

"Really than where is he? All I see re six men and a boy who won't stop moving his lips and figure out that I don't do anything for free"

Drew smiled suddenly "So it's money you want huh? I'll offer you thirty gold pieces once we get back to the gate with the prisoner"

"Deal, but I am not responsible for your men. You do what I say, when I say it and you'll be fine"

"I will not take orders fro-"

"You do what I say, when I say it. Got it?" the Ranger interrupted.

"For now peasant" Drew spat

The Ranger smirked " Then we have an accord. Pikachu, my hat please" a yellow mouse came from underneath the counter with a hat in its mouth and jumped on his shoulder. The Ranger grabbed the hat and put it on his head. The hat was completely black and had a a frayed end. Ot was the hat of an Aura Guardian, the only difference being that there was no blue band going around the top with the Aura Guardian's symbol on it.

"My Rapidash is in the stables, I assume yours are just outside as well?"

**There we go that was Chapter 4. This is the setting for the rest of the story, and next we will be going into the whole track down and stuff. I might go a bit farther than that and have them keep going through the Dark Forest. Anyway Thanks for reading, Comments, ****suggestions, criticism, and anything else is welcome, till next time.**

**-novaking2832**


	6. Chapter 5: A Light in the Dark

**Hello again everyone. I'm sorry that my last chapter was little late and I have no excuses. I just had a lot of tests and got lazy with this. I will try to make sure this never happens again. Anyway thanks for clicking on my story and I hope you enjoy.**

**Pure**** Gamer: Thank you for your kind words. I am trying to amend these awkward sentences and get everything I can correct. I hope I am doing a good job at it although it appears I have yet to eliminate all mistakes. I will look especially hard for any in this chapter and I hope you enjoy**

**Chapter 5: A Light in the Dark**

It was probably a bad idea to get involved. In fact he knew it was a bad idea, but the reward might actually be worth it this time. It might be just wishful thinking though, Ash had the worst luck in the world. But all he was doing was catching a prisoner, how hard could that be for him? He had done a lot worse and come out alive, barley breathing, but alive.

He clicked his heals against the side of his Rapidash and sped away with the green haired prince and his guards just a few yards behind him. Pikachu sat in front of him, in between his legs, staring forward with a determined look on his face. Neither of them were looking forward to this job. They had been in the Dark Forest once and had no wish to do it again. But this was simpler than gong after Riley who had wanted a challenge at the time. All he had to do was catch a person who may or may not be dead. Fortunately this was the Dark Forest they were gong into so the person has either been running around and leaving a trail to follow, or is laying unconscious for maybe thirty minutes to an hour max.

Who was this poor bastard who decided to defy Giovanni though? Ash has no love for Giovanni, in fact if he got the chance to kill him, he would. But he wasn't stupid enough to charge Giovanni's palace swinging his sword around like an ass. Point is how did they escape? They would have had to plan it for a while to be able to it. Maybe he shouldn't take this as lightly as he should.

"Hey" he called out behind him "Who is this person to escape the inescapable prison of the king? Do they have any skills or background that I should know about before we go in?" Ash asked

"Nothing worth saying" Drew called from behind "This prisoner got out through an unfortunate set of circumstances, but she doesn't pose a threat at all. The forest does however."

Ash turned back around, you could see the beginning of the Dark Forest that lay just beyond the hill, making everything seem normal until you got over the hill. The drastic change in scenery had surprised Ash when he first saw it all those years ago, then he remembered their first obstacle. The bogs. They were very common on the outskirts of the forest but they would harm you much if you paid a little attention to the ground. It was not crossable by Rapidash though; it had to be crossed by a flying type, which would result in the local Pokemon shooting you down, or by foot. Which was what they were gong to do. A Houndoom sat waiting for them at the edge of the forest.

The bogs though, they were those grey pits of mud and quicksand. Everything in the Dark Forest had a black or grey coloring behind it. Including the Pokemon, it used to be known as Viridian Forest, but had been renamed after the Darkrai incident. Aparently some Sinnoh legendries had been fighting and the Darkrai had lost to two other giant looking Pokemon. One had been pinkish and white, the other blue and white. But the Darkrai was blown over here and corrupted all life in the forest that he made his home, supposedly turning thm all into dark types. The last part was unlikely and things were probably just evolving to the new environment that the Darkrai made. One thing Ash was familiar with however was the spore that was all around you. He didn't know what it was but it made you see things. He himself has seen his skin turn inside out and Pikachu melting like lava in from of him. Not something he was looking for. But it came from a certain mushroom that could be used for that if it was crushed or to help clot blood wounds.

The ride was over soon enough and Ash, known to them simply as the Ranger, stopped them all just in front of the bogs. "Is this the pace where the person went in?" Drew nodded in response "Alright everyone dismount now" Ash said. He walked over to the bog in front of them and crouched to look at the ground. He saw some skid marks a few feet before the bog and then they dropped off into the bog. "You sure your prisoner ain't dead?" Ask asked. Drew shook his saying "The men saw the prisnoer escaping into the woods and followed, only a few made it back". Ash nodded and stood up from where he had been crouching "Alright, follow my steps closely and keep your eyes on the ground for any bogs; once you fall in, we won't be able to pull you out, got it?"

They all nodded and he began to navigate his way through the bogs at the head of the line with Drew a few steps following and the Houndoom at the back. It really wasn't that difficult to navigate through the bogs. You had a few feet of spade between each bog which was plenty of room to walk around in. The real problem was the mud that you had to walk on through the bogs. There were rocks hidden under the mud, invisible without looking closely enough so if you took a wrong step on one you were as good as dead.

By slowly walking through though, they had no problems and emerged into the actual forest immediately after clearing the bogs. "That was the easy part, I don't suppose any of you brought masks like I did?" Ash asked

"Why would we need masks in this place?" Drew responded

"Because unless the poisonous mushrooms here have changed, then they still emit a gas when crushed that causes horrible hallucinations and if you breath too much of it over time, you will die. The first stage is coughing followed by said hallucinations, then you experience disorientation and dizziness and your motor skills will fail. After a minute or so you will fall unconscious and if you stay if manage to crush more of these mushrooms while you are on the last stage and breath in even more toxic fumes, then you will eventually die. Some of the Pokemon have the ability to produce this gas as well. Any Pokemon that can release poison power, sleep powder, stun spore, etc. can release the gas. I believe it's a mutation that came along with adapting to the new environment. That is why I have this mask with me" he said the last part bringing up the mask to cover his nose.

"How do you know so much about this place?" Drew asked, a little surprised on the Ranger's advanced knowledge of the forest. The only bounty hunters he had dealt with were big brutes that only knew how to swing a weapon. Never really one that was actually intelligent.

"Because the last time I was here I breathed in the gas thanks to a Gloom that was pissed at me. The person I was with had already stepped on the mushrooms so I knew about that." Ash said

"Is there anything else we should know about before we go in? Any more of these "killer plants" we should know about" Drew ended with the last part sarcastically

Ash turned away and muttered "asshole" under his breath. "No, the only thing that grows are the mushrooms. I don't remember seeing any other plant life growing in there. If there are no more questions lets go get the person and go back so I can get my money, got it cabbage?" Ash smirked at the last part

Drew's face grew red with rage at the comment "Well oh "valiant leader" please lead us to the prisoner now" Drew said with as much sarcasm as possible

Ash just chuckled and began to walk ahead, eyes on the group for any sign of the prisoner. The guards followed in suit, but Drew pulled two of them aside. "The second that we find her, kill him. He can't know who the prisoner that escaped is. Pass the message on to the others" he let the guards go and they begn to spread the word amongst the remaining four men.

Ash had ended up a good distance away from them. They were being noising behind him. Every step they took he heard a twig snap or something, even the Houndoom wasn't all that graceful. He was out of earshot to hear what they were saying, but Pikachu could hear them fine. So if they felt like gossiping he would know what they knew. They had been speaking in whispers a little bit ago, which Pikachu had failed to hear but talking in a regular voice was easy to hear. A fog had come from the direction they were headed in but he had sill managed to picked up a small trail of footprints in the dirt a little ways back. If there was one thing goos about the mud, it was that it didn't collapse back in to itself when pressure was applied. So you could see a faint trail of footprints. However the trail was fading as he followed. Maybe because the dense fog was getting the mud heavy enough with moisture to reform so the mud looked like it hadn't been walked on. He would have to find this person soon or he would be walking blind. You never wanted to be in the Dark Forest with no direction to go in. But wait, there was a small scuffled area up ahead.

-MAY'S POV-

She had woken up to the sound of heavy footsteps and a twig snapping. She brought her head up and looked around. She saw them, A dark clothed man was looking at the area she had been at earlier with the Paras. He and a bow and a quiver on his back and was around seventy five feet away, crouched down and with his index and middle finger in the dirt them moving around, as if drawing up what had happened. There was a yellow mouse close to him, sniffing the ground behind him. They were way ahead of everybody else though, because she could see the guards behind him. They were spread out in a misshapen line, looking around. And she saw HIM, he was walking with some of the men. A little but to the left of the one checking the area where she had fallen. He wasn't headed directly towards her, the other man was closer in fact, but one of his men was walking in almost a straight line towards her, stopping to check very tree that he passed. _  
_

She got up as quietly and as quickly as she could, keeping crouched as low as possibly without hindering movement and picked up the still unconscious Eevee. She began to move away from them a bit and darted behind a tree, but when she looked back she the dark clothed man heading directly towards her. At the pace she was going to be moving at, he would see her very soon. Fortunately this fog made her invisible at this distance, but his clothes she could see. She had to hide, fast. She ran a small ways to a large tree the had it roots digging into the ground but left a small opening to crawl into. She places Eevee in there and made her way in after and peeked out to see the man who would've seen her by now if she hadn't made her way into the tree's cover. He was just came around the tree she had originally been behind, the mouse still sniffing the ground where he and been. He crouched to the ground and as he did, the guards and Drew emerged from the smoke about twenty five feet behind him. He quickly stood though and began to make his way towards the tree she hid under at faster pace than before and passed by the tree. With a mask covering his face, she could only see his eyes wander back and forth. He was clearly searching for her and she held her breath as he passed, but he simply walked by without even a glance downwards. After a few seconds she let her breath out, but a hand grabbed her leg and she screamed as age was pulled roughly out.

-ASH'S POV-

He heard the person breath out, it was a stupid mistake on their part. He had almost been gone, but had paused when he saw another roughed up area right behind the tree which allowed him a moment to hear an exhale of breath coming from inside a small hole after the roughed up area. Ash smirked under his mask and reached in, grabbing the leg of the prisoner, and pulling them out. The second their entire body was out of the tree he grabbed the woman by the back of her shirt and pulled her up so her back was pressed against his chest and put his forearm around her neck and put both of his legs between hers so she couldn't kick him in any place he didn't want.

"Stop struggling or I'll knock you out and tie you up and drag your unconscious body body off the back of my horse back to Saffron" Ash whispered in her ear. That stopped her struggling almost immediately.

"Great work Ranger, I shouldn't have doubted you" Drew said with a smile "Hello dearest, did the big bad bounty hunter scare you?" he finished the last part in a baby voice.

"Shut up you asshole" May yelled. _She's got some fight to her_ Ash thought. He nodded to Pikachu who came over and stood behind at his side

"Alright Ranger, if you would please hand her over to me we can go back and pay you" Drew said

"Wait! He's going to betray you" May yelled

"Be quiet" Ash said "But sorry Drew, I'm going to hold onto her till I get my money. We'll go back to the edge of the forest and you send one of your men to go to Saffron and get the money and come back while the rest of you stay here and make sure I don't do anything with the prisoner. Sound fair?"

"Well I'm sorry too Ranger, but you aren't getting your money. Houndoom flamethrower now!" Drew said. Suddenly, one of the guards pulled a crossbow from his back and and shot an arrow at Ash, aiming for his head. Ash saw the movement and spun around dodging the bolt, and while he was facing away from them he pushed May behind him and spun the remaining one hundred and eighty degrees, the entire thing done without pausing, to face the men again.

Pikachu had jumped to his left and was already engaged in a battle with the Houndoom. "Knew this was trouble" Ash muttered. He lunged at the closest guard, drawing his sword simultaneously, and sliced him across his chest immediately incapacitating him. He jumped back as another came down with his sword. He lunged again, aiming for the neck of the second guard only to be parried by a third. He took a step back and swung his sword horizontally in front of him, backing off any attackers and using the momentary step back of his opponents to stab one directly through the neck. Before he could retract his sword a guard tried to stab in his heart from his right, but only managed to give him a gash in the area because bent his chest back a little, his blade stopping right before Ash's left arm.

Ash jumped back and slapped the man's blade away. He paired and overhead from one guard and saw another coming in to stab him through the chest. _These guts are pretty good _Ash thought. He used his left hand and pulled out a dagger that used to deflect the sword off the flat of the blade causing the thrust to go past Ash and stopping only when the dagger blade reached the hilt. The guards face was a mere inches away from the dagger blade, he had put too much force behind the thrust and that put him too close to the knife. Ash lifted the blade up, letting it go for a moment, before readjusting his grip so that he could stab the guard through the neck.

After pulling the knife out of the guards neck and plunged it into the guard that was facing him's chest once, twice, then three times before allowing him to drop to the ground dead. He faced the last two that stood to protect Drew who sat and watched, his sword still sheathed and strapped to his belt. Ash went on the offensive and and slashed downward at the guard to the right of Drew resulting in a parry, and as expected the other guard used this opening to try and stab Ash through his heart only to have his blade pushed to the side by Ash's dagger and punched in the face by Ash's fist soon after. The guards disengaged and fell back again. The one he punched wiped his jaw with his free hand.

The guards rushed him simultaneously, one striking in s downwards arc, the other trying to slice across Ash's chest. He parried both, but with his chest wide open, he received a punch to the stomach and got pushed back. He looked back up after the punch and the guards were on him. One sliced to decapitate, the other trying to skewer him. He reacted fast, he threw his knife at the one trying to skewer him and barley managed to parry the one trying to cut hid head off. He watched the knife not even cut the man's face, the man was hit by the hilt and fell to the ground unconscious._ That's one way to do it I guess _Ash thought. He locked his sword in with the other and put his leg behind the guard's and pushed him over, right into a patch of mushrooms. He took his eyes off the guard who lay coughing on the ground and turned to Drew only to see green hair right in front of him. _Holy shit he's fast_ Ash thought. HE ducked under the initial swing and parried the downward stroke. He pushed Drew back a little, and smiled for a moment.

"What are you looking at peasant?" Drew said, a smile also in his face.

Ash only held up a hand with three fingers raised and dropped one to make it two, then dropped another one leaving just his index finger extended, and finally he dropped the third making a closed fist. The second he did Drew began a coughing fit, he fell to his knees and dropped his sword. Drew began looking around with wild eyes and looked at his own hand and screamed, backing away from Ash and further in to the gas. Ash was reading to make the killing strike, but the gas was still around Drew, so he backed off and turned to see the girl running away.

"Pikachu disengage now!" Ash yelled. Pikachu let out one last thunderbolt that was dodged and jumped to his partner's side. "Let's move now!" Ash yelled and they turned and ran after the girl

-MAY'S POV-

She ran away after the first kill, what reason sis she have to stick around. She ran and pulled Eevee out of the tree then heard a man yelling and then she recognized Drew's screams. She didn't turn back though. She ran and ran till she could barley breath and eventually stopped at a fallen tree and put her arm on it, trying to catch her breath. She felt a hand go around he mouth and gasped slightly but it was muffled into the man's hand.

"Do not make a sound and we'll both be fine. If you understand nod your head" She nodded slightly and felt the hand around her mouth retract. She turned around to see the masked face of the bounty hunter. He turned to his partner and said "Pikachu are you okay?" the second his face was turned she grabbed the hilt of one of his knives and brought it up and eld it with both hands, pointing it shakily at him.

"D-don't come any c-closer. I don't want to h-hurt you, but I will if y-you f-force me" the man just looked at her with a bored gaze.

"Really?" he asked in a bored tone. "You know what, whatever. Pikachu lets go home. Rapidash knows to go home if we don't come back after and few hours". He turned and vaulted over the log with the Pikachu in pursuit.

"Wait! Where are you going?" May called out. He turned around sharply, "Shhhhh!" he said and looked in the direction they had come from "I'm going away from you. You're nothing but trouble."

"Wait" she whispered and ran around the log, "Can you take me to King Norman's castle?"

"Why in the fucking world would take you there?"

"I can pay you, I don't have it on me, but the second we get there I promise that you'll get what you want. How much would it cost?"

"Ash hefted his sword for a moment "It'd have to be at least forty gold pieces" he said, trying to get more out of this than he already was going to.

"One hundred gold pieces" May said "Guaranteed"

Pikachu's ears perked up at that, but Ash's eyes narrowed and he took a step forward. "Who are you?" he asked, suspicion laced heavily in his voice

"Why do you care? You're getting gold out of it" May answered

He took another step forward so he was right in front of her "I don't trust you"

"I gave you my word"

"I still don't trust you...But you have a deal" he said, putting his hand out for a shake.

May looked at the hand for a moment before hesitantly reaching out and shaking it. Ash retracted his hand and gave her a once over before turning around, alright then follow me"

**And thus ends Chapter 5: A Light in the Dark. Thank you to all who clicked on the story and I hope you enjoyed. Please leave leave any suggestions, ****corrections, compliments, hate, and anything else you want. Thanks again and I hope you have a beautiful day.**

**-novaking2832**


	7. Chapter 6: The End of the Beginning

**Hello again everybody, how are you? I would like to thank you for clicking on this story and I hope you enjoyed it. Today I'm back with chapter 6 and this one is picking up directly after they shook hands. I did a really bad job incorporating the Pokemon in that chapter, but I figured Ash wouldn't be watching Pikachu fight when he's got six guys he needs to fight. Seven counting Drew I guess. I hope this will be longer than the last one, I thought the content would take up more space. Sorry about that but without anymore delay, here is chapter 6.**

**Sailor Taichichi Vegeta: Solidad got locked up for having associated with the rebels in Sinnoh, kind of made that up just now but there's your answer. I figured it would have been easy for everyone to figure out who the Ranger is. I tried to make it obvious. I wasn't sure about the hat but i wanted to make it so he had something covering his head cause he always does regularly. I didn't want to use a hood either so I'm going to have a backstory for how he got the hat. The mushrooms don't really heal, they just don't kill when applied to the wound, nothing more. Wouldn't you punish someone who failed to hold up their end of the bargain? I know I would, or charge double, or plus 10% of the original charge each day that the person does;t pay me back.**

**Chapter 6: The End of the Beginning**

"Follow me" he said, turning around as he did. May only nodded in response, not that he could see that, but he knew she was going to follow him. He walked just a few steps before pausing for a moment and wincing. He brought a hand up to his chest and muttered "Adrenaline wore off". He looked around for a moment before spotting something and walking over to the stump of a tree. He crouched down and reached for something, May recognized it immediately, "Wait don't touch those!" she yelled

He already and a mushroom in his hand though and was glaring at her. "SHHHHHH" he hissed. "Do you want the others to wake up and come after us? Not to mention the Houndoom". He turned away though, not really wanting an answer. "You have to crush them to get them to release the gas, you can tear them up fine". He reached up and grabbed his mask and pulled it down till it was around his neck and then ripped the stem from the head put the stem in his mouth and chewed. May looked at him like he was crazy. Did he not just say that crushing it would release the gas. But this was the first time she got to see his face, even if it was just barley the side of it. He was tan, with a defined face that looked like cold and unforgiving. But before she could go around him to see more of his face he spat out the the chewed remains of the stem into his gloved hand and brought the mask back up, dropping the head of there mushroom, sort taking its place in his hand. He mixed the two together and stretched his shirt so he could see down it. He put the black mixture down his shirt and tool a sharp intake of air while applying the makeshift salve onto his wound. His face was contorted in pain, but he pulled his hand out soon enough and let out a deep breath.

"Pikapi?" his Pikachu asked. He glanced at his partner and said "Yeah I'll be fine, just got to find some proper medical supplies and I'll be good as new".He stood back up and Pikachu jumped on his shoulder

"Are you insane?" May whispered "That stuff knocked me and Eevee out. Who knows what it'll do if you put it on a cut"

"It will cause a blood clot to stop the bleeding" Ash said "Now lets get out of here. I don't like this place" He didn't wait for an answer, he just turned around and began to walk away.

May sighed and began to follow him. It hadn't been too long till they came to a small ridge line that led to a half pipe looking ditch that ran down the forest. Probably marking the territory between some Pokemon. It was about twenty two feet deep with rocks of various shapes and sizes at the bottom and had round sides on each part that wouldn't be difficult to scale. Some broken trees were on the other side as well and their roost made nice grips and footholds. A very large tree that made plenty of room for three people to walk side by side was laid across it. "Over there" Ash said and walked towards it. He stepped on first and held out his hand for May to grab. She took his gloved hand and he pulled her and Eevee, who had been asleep in May's arms the since May pulled her from the under the tree.

"Thanks" May said. The Ranger just grunted what she assumed was a "your welcome" and turned to start walking on the makeshift bridge. But the moment he turned around he froze. Pikachu from his perch in his Ash's shoulder began to sniff the air and growled, electricity sparking from his cheeks. Eevee woke up too and squirmed a little in May's arms. "What is it?" May asked

"I'm not su-" before he could finish his sentence a large grey arm came from nowhere and batted him diagonally off the bridge and he landed on the rounded edge of the ditch on the other side of the bridge. He struggled his way up, Pikachu right beside him also trying to get up but before he could stand a small shockwave shook he earth beneath him. May screamed and he looked up to see a mutated grey Machamp jump off the bridge in to the center of the ditch and start walking towards him.

"Ma champ!" it roared.

"Where in the hell did he come from?" Ash groaned out. He threw his bow to the ground and the arrows with it knowing that it would be all but useless against a Machamp.

The Machamp took one step forward towards Ash, closing the fifteen foot gap in half. Ash painfully rose to his feet, Pikachu standing next to him, "Run now!" he yelled at May. As soon as the words left his mouth the Machamp took a swing at Ash who rolled to the side and Pikachu jumped to the other. "Pikachu thunderbolt!" Ash yelled. Pikachu let loose a massive thunderbolt at the Machamp who took the attack in full. But once the light faded the Machamp stood, infected by the powerful attack. "Damn" Ash muttered and he ran at the Machamp, using the high ground to his advantage. The Machamp there another punch at Ash who jumped over the arm, attempting to swipe at its neck. Only to be punched back by the second arm on the Machamp's left side. He slid back about eleven feet and pulled down his mask, coughing up blood. He left his blood stained mask around his neck

"Pikachu volt tackle!" he ordered his friend to do. Because sprinted at the Machamp and soon became coated in a bright golden light that radiated electricity and jumped at the Machamp. The Machamp however just grabbed used his two right arms to punch Pikachu simultaneously from the right and from below. "Oikachu iron tail" Ash ordered. Pikachu spun in mid air and blocked the incoming strike from below, but he could do nothing about the strike from the side and was pushed towards Ash who began to sprint at the Machamp while Pikachu grabbed his attention. He dropped his blade and caught Pikachu.

"You alright buddy?" he asked. "Pika" Pikachu said with an affirmative nod.

"Quick attack from below him while i attack from above. Got it?" Piakchu nodded once again. He placed Pikachu to the ground and grabbed his sword again and looked up to see a fist directly in front of his face and was blown back a lot.

"PIKAPI!" Pikachu yelled as he ran towards his fallen partner. Ash dug his sword in the ground and used it as a cane to get back up, his body howling in protest, demanding that he fall back down and stay still till the pain went away. "Pikachu behind you!" he yelled to his friend. Piakchu turned to see a dynamic punch coming straight at him. "No" Ash yelled as Pikachu was thrown down in the ditch away from the battle.

He turned back to his opponent and saw him running right at him. ducked under tyne first punch and moved to the right of the second. He thrusted his sword in the Machamp's ribcage but was met with yet another punch to the stomach and then grabbed by the collar of his shirt and seismic tossed into a tree, there was an audible crunch when hit the tree with his shoulder and then fell to the ground on his back. He sat up with his back against the tree and coughed up more blood. He looked up into the eyes of the Machamp who had two of his hands on either side of Ash and kneeled with his face just inches from Ash's. The Machamp roared in Ash's, but Ash sat their and stared back with cold, unflinching eyes.

"STOP!" a voice yelled. The Machamp turned to the voice that came from the ditch. May stood with Eevee at her side, staring into the Machamp's eyes, her gaze never wavering. The Machamp bound two steps till he was right in front of her and bent down till he was face to face with her just like he had been with Ash and yelled in her face as well. She flinched but did not step back. Eevee however, did take two steps back, but Piakchu stood and placed himself protectively in front of her. May continued to stare into the Machamp's eyes and the Machamp into hers. Ash watched from his spot at the tree. He could see May facing off against the Machamp and tried to tell her to run but just ended up coughing up more blood. But then the Machamp just stood to his full height and walked away. But before he went into the forest from the direction that they came from he turned back and looked at May before turning back and going into the woods.

Ash scrambled up the moment the Machamp disappeared in to the forest and stumbled his way down the slope while holding his shoulder. "I thought I told you to run" he said. "If I had ran when you told me to, you would be dead". He didn't respond to that, he just stared at her for a second before turning his head to the side and spitting out what remaining blood he had in his mouth.

"Vee!" Eevee's call brought their attention to the two Pokemon, one of which was snuggling up against the exhausted Pikachu. Pikachu sweat dropped a little at this, but May let out a small giggle and even Ash cracked a smile. May turned to Ash who looked on the entire seen with amusement, a small smile gracing his lips. Now she could see his whole face and past the cold look in his eyes and the intimidating figure, he was really handsome.

"What are you staring at?" he said looking back at her. Realizing she had been staring she turned her head away and said "Nothing impressive I can tell you that much". He just smirked at that.

"Pikachu are feeling up for some recon for me?" he asked Pikachu.

"Pika Pikachu" he responded

"Thanks" Ash said and watched as Pikachu made his way to the edge of the ditch, Eevee still rubbing up against his side.

Ash found the whole site amusing and watched with a small smile as Pikachu struggled to get up with Eevee glued to him. But as soon as Piakchu and Eevee were gone he turned to his arm. He brought his blood stained mask up to his mouth and rolled it up into a budge before biting down on it, making it look like he was gagged. He grabbed his dislocated arm and shoved it back into place. If it hadn't been for the gag, anything within a half mile radius would have heard him. But the gad only made it so it was audible enough for May to hear his cry of pain. He spat the cloth from his mouth and it fell to his neck once again, and spat on the ground o few times to get the copper taste out of his mouth.

He spun his arm in a circle a few times and flexed it. He sighed in relief, nothing appeared to be broken or cracked, his ever present bad luck seamed to have given him a little leeway. "I hope your Eevee's sudden infatuation with my Pikachu will not hinder the job" he said suddenly.\

"What do you mean by that?" May said accusingly

"I mean that Pikachu will not be able to effectively battle if he has to worry about an Eevee on the sidelines"

May sighed, seeing his point. "I'll make sure she doesn't get in the way", Ash nodded. He was suddenly right in front of May with a knife in his hand. He grabbed her skirt and took the knife and cut it off till it was at above knee height. She looked at him incredulously.

Ash smirked "Don't flatter yourself, you can run faster with a shorter skirt" He turned a little before turning back. "Take the knife"

"What?" May asked

"Take the knife". May took the knife from his hands. "If someone ever reaches out to grab you like this" he reached out with a straight arm to grab her " you bring your arm up at a ninety degree angle and bat their outstretched arm to the side which leaves their chest completely open" he used his other hand to show her how to bat his arm to the side the brought the a=hand with the knife in it and locked the blade in-between his arm and ribs. "If you get a chance like that. You drive the blade through that person's chest till they drop to the ground" he let go of her hands.

"I couldn't do that to another human, or a Pokemon for that matter"

"Judging from the way things are going and the fact that you probably won't run away if we get in trouble, it looks like you won't have a choice"

May looked down, Not wanting to believe that she might have to kill someone. He looked at her and his gaze softened just a bit. "Hey, chin up. You did good" he said. She looked back up at him and smiled.

"Pikapi!" Ash heard Pikachu call. "Coming" he replied. He began to make the painful walk up the side of the ridge with May right next to him. He made it to the top and once again held his hand out for May to take. He lifted her the last couple of steps up, picked up his bow and arrows and began to walk towards edge of the forest.

About thirty minutes later they found themselves at the edge of the forest, leading into a small field of reeds that bordered a body of water that held a thick mist over it. "Finally" Ash muttered. He walked through the reeds without hesitation and after a few moments all four of them (Eevee back in May's arms and Pikachu on Ash's shoulder split the last barrier of reeds to reveal the the wide, slow flowing river. And the anchored boats that held masked archers and warriors on it.

"Only dark types and mutated Pokemon come out of there" A woman with spiky orange hair said "So what were you doing in a place for dark types?"

"We just want to get across the river and out of that hell hole" Ash responded

The woman nodded, satisfied with his answer and the bowmen lowered the weapons. Soon the group was heading across the river. "I'm Misty" the woman said, sitting opposite of the group while others i the boats gently rowed, the task not taking much energy. "I'm the leader of Cerulean Town".

"Cerulean Village? Isn't it Cerulean City?" May asked.

Misty shook her head. Cerulean City wasn't on the river like Cerulean Village is. During Giovanni's original rise to power the towns people of Cerulean had a little rebellion ending with Cerulean being burned and having all the Pokemon being taken away. All we have is each other and some houses on the water with Magikarp to eat".

"That's horrible" May said. "It's how things are" Misty shrugged "We still live a decent life"

"How did you not know that happened?" Ash asked

"I was a prisoner of Giovanni, I wasn't exactly kept up to date with all the events in Kanto" May said hotly

"Be that as it may your parents should have told you that long before you were sent to prison" Ash said.

"Well they didn't" May said

"So I've told you who I am, now you should return the favor" Misty said

"We're just travelers trying to get into Hoenn" Ash said

"Really? Just travelers huh? Your sword and other weapons tell me something else" Misty said

"I'm sorry, I forgot it was illegal to carry weapons around when you travel" Ash replied

"Alright you win this round, but could you at least give me name?" Misty asked.

"No"

The rest of the ride was quiet and without any conversation. Soon though, a small collection of reed and wooden houses held up by the banks of the river. The roofs were each made from reeds and straw that slanted downward with thin wooden walls supporting them. "Not a bad place you got here" Ash said

"Was that sarcasm I detected in your voice?" Misty said accusingly

"No, that would be honesty. Just take the compliment" Ash said, not wanting to get into an argument. The came to a slow stop and Ash got out and help those who were also sitting in the boat out. "Pikachu, keep an eye on Eevee would you?"

"Pika pikachu?!" Pikachu looked at Ash incredulously.

"I don't care if she's taken a fancy to you just do it. This seems like the kind of place she would get lost in. She's too happy for her own good"

Pikachu sighed and bent his head down then nodded, "Thanks".

He walked over to where MaY was talking to Misty. "How much will it cost to stay here for the night?" May was asking. "How about three silver pieces for each of you and two for the Pokemon. Sound like a deal?" Misty said the last part looking over May's shoulder at Ash who nodded in response. He took out ten silver pieces from somewhere behind his black cloak.

Alright you guys stay in that house over there, its where I'm staying too".

"What don't you trust us?" Ash said in a sarcastic voice

"When a Charizard swims". "What were you doing out in the water. Were you waiting for us?" May asked

"We were fishing, we just have guard boats in case a Pokemon decides to attack and when we heard you coming through the reeds. Fishing rods were switched to bows"

"Can I get some medical supplies? Like some berries or something?" Ash asked

"Sure" Misty turned around and yelled "HEY TRACEY. GET SOME BERRIES!"

A young man who had been sitting on the edge of the dock who appeared to be writing something down on some parchment jumped a little. "Yes Misty" he said before running into a house and coming back with a bowl full of berries. "Come on lets go inside our house" Misty said, already heeding into one of the houses which Ash, Pikachu, May and Eevee entered shortly after.

There were a few other people in the house. The man Tracey had followed the in and there were three other woman sitting around table. "You sit here" Misty ordered Ash who would normally get mad at being ordered around but he could tell this was a woman you would not want to piss off and sat down on the bed she pointed to. "Take off the cloak, sword, bow, hat, and shirt".

"What?!" May yelled

"Relax he's got some injuries right? He wouldn't ask for medicinal berries if he didn't have injuries so I'm going to treat him and judging from the blood stained area, I'd say it's on his torso".

Ash nodded, confirming her analysis and took the hat, cloak and shirt off, leaving him bare chested. Misty couldn't help it. She didn't think that he would actually have any muscle under his cloths. So when he took his shirt off she couldn't help but blush a little at seeing his surprisingly defined chest. At least she wasn't the only one though, the girl he was with also had a visible blush on her face, but when Misty turned to look at her sisters, they all had something akin to lust in their eyes.

"Uh A-alright uh" Misty stammered for a moment her train of thought lost "lets g-get that...what is that?" she asked halfway through her sentence.

"It and adhesive I made to stop the bleeding" Ash responded

"W-well take this cloth and wipe it off" Misty said, turning away from him.

"Perhaps I would be more suited to attend to his wounds" the man named Tracey said.

"I think that might be a good idea" Misty replied quickly

Tracey walked over and took the bowl from Misty. He sat down on a stool in front of Ash and began to clean the wound.

Misty quickly walked over to May to save herself from embarrassment. But when she looked back, Ash didn't even give her a second glance. It's like he didn't notice the girls blushing.

"By the look of these scars on your chest I'd say this isn't the first time you've run into trouble" Tracey said, indicating the other few faded scars on his chest.

"These are trying times, you can't expect to not run into trouble when you travel like we do" Ash said

"True, but you usually don't go looking for trouble, and there's nothing but trouble in the Dark Forest. So what were you doing in there?"

"Trying to go around the bandits and the wild Pokemon" Ash said

"I see" Tracey said. "Well the "wild Pokemon" are all that's in the Dark Forest. So you wouldn't have avoided them at all"

"We didn't, but one Machamp is better than ten Flareon" Ash said, starting to get annoyed with the questions.

"So that's why you have all these bruises. I'm surprised you managed to take on a dark Machamp and come out with so few injuries"

"Thanks I guess"

"Your welcome" Tracey said. Well that should do it. I wouldn't recommend tossing and turning in your sleep because those are going to hurt in the middle of the night. But you shouldn't even feel it in the morning. It sure will be one hell of a night for you though" e said while walking out.

"Greeaaat" Ash said sarcastically while pulling his shirt over his head again, but leaving his cloak and hat under the mattress and laying down on the bed and closing his eyes.

"Hey, get up from the bed" Misty said to him "You got work to do"

Ash opened one eye at looked at her for a moment "I have work to do" he repeated "Why should I be doing work?"

"Well if you don't want any dinner than by all means". Ash sat up and looked at her before sighing. "What work would I be doing exactly?"

"Your just going to fish for your meal. In this town, you keep what you catch. So no one is going to providing for you"

"That's it? Alright just give me five minutes". Ash stood from the bed and walked outside with Pikachu, Eevee still with him, outside.

"Hm, he thinks he's so tough doesn't he. He can never beat my our though" Misty went over to another bed and grabbed something that lay under the mattress. She brought up a small wooden carving of herself that had been colored to look like her.

"Does that really work?" May said. She didn't know much about fishing but she knew that you used a hook with some sort of bait. The bait varied depending on the Pokemon.

"No, it doesn't" one of the three girls from the table said "In fact it seems to drive the Pokemon away from it".

"Really?" May said, giggling a little. "Yep" she said also laughing a bit "My names Daisy and this is Lily and Violet. We're Misty's older sisters"

"It's a pleasure to meet you" May said

The second she finished her sentence Ash walked back in carrying a live Magikarp, its body flailing around helplessly. "Dinner is served" Ash said sarcastically

Misty's surprised look turned into a glare and she grabbed the fish by its tail from his arms. "This will do I suppose. A little on the small side though" She said, trying to regain some of the pride she lost.

Ash just shrugged, "Whatever, do you need me to kill it?" he asked

"No, I can do it myself" Misty said hotly before walking in another part of the room that was most likely a kitchen.

Ash sighed and muttered "Woman" before laying back down on the bed he was assigned.

"You can sleep on the bed across from him" Daisy said, pointing to the bed on the other side of the room. Their were six beds, three lined with a small space in-between each bed on both sides of the room. May walked over to the bed and sat down. Soon the smell of something burning filled the air and everyone heard Ash sigh and stand and walked over to the kitchen. It was silent for a moment before you could hear Misty'd muffled voice through the wall.

"Hey what are y-...No, stop. I can...How do you know...Really?...Prove...After the barely audible snippets of the conversation it was quiet and the burning smell faded away shortly. Ash reappeared a little bit later with multiple flays of the Magikarp on a large plate and he held a few more plates under it, one for each person in the house. He set the plates around the table and put the larger one in the middle. He then turned and went back into the kitchen without speaking a word to any of them and returned with some knives and forks with an embarrassed Misty right behind him and set them out.

"Anyone hungry?" Ash asked. The three sisters all grabbed a flay and put it on their plates and May and Misty came over and did the same. "Wow" Lily said "This is actually pretty good. So you can cook too?" Lily asked. Ash nodded "You have to learn how to make food for yourself when your on the road for days at a time. You can't rely on taverns and inns to be in the middle of a forest"

"Well this is good for someone knows cooking just to provide for himself. Most people who travel's cooking is mediocre and not that good. So how did you learn how to cook so well?" Violet asked

"My former companion... always had a dream to become a successful innkeeper. And to do that he needed to know how to make very good meals. He taught me how to make a decent meal in the least amount of time possible without having to worry about things like the meat being undercooked"

"Sounds like you have had some adventures in your life" Violet said

"I think it's safe to say that I have" Ash said. "Well? Are you going to tell us some?" Misty asked

"Eager are we?" Ash said with a smirk. Misty blushed "N-no. I'm just tired of you not talking about yourself". Ash chuckled at her weak response

"Alright I tell you a tale or two" Ash said

-Later that Night-

They all lay on their beds. The four sisters were asleep and Eevee slept snuggled into May's arms. Even Pikachu slept comfortably next to the pillow. Ash however was outside sitting on the pier, looking out into the river.

"Can't sleep?" a voice behind him asked.

"Hello Tracey, shouldn't you be in bed" Ash responded

Tracey sat down next to him "I could say the same thing to you" Tracey countered and Ash grunted in response

"You know, you aren't like any travelers that I've seen. We barley get anyone here, but those who do come and stay for a little are always afraid of something. It could be the king's men, bandits, Pokemon, but they're always afraid of something. When I look at you though, you seem to fear nothing"

"No one is fearless" Ash said "Anyone who says they are is a liar and an idiot. The key is finding that fear"

"So what do you fear Ranger?" Ash looked up at him when he called him Ranger. "Oh come on. No else may have noticed but I know who you are"

Ash merely grunted again "Then why didn't you say anything?"

"Because if you were here to cause trouble I doubt any of us would have known till you were done" Tracey said

"I'm not as good as people say. The trick is all in appearance. The more they fear you, the less trouble you get. Unfortunately it's a double edged sword, the people who do want to cause trouble are good fighters and it's not eas-" he paused. "Do you smell something burning?" Ash asked

A streak of light in the sky caught their attention and it landed on the roof of Ash current accommodation. The second it landed five more flaming arrows came from the reeds that lay to the side of the village. "Oh shit!" He yelled before standing up and running towards the house he was staying at, arrows still coming down from the night sky.

He kicked the door open, waking everyone up. "Everyone get out now!" he yelled. They all stood at his urgent tone and ran out the door to see fire blazing on all the houses and men coming in from the reeds. Ash dashed in the house and grabbed his equipment and hurriedly putting it on, Pikachu waiting for him, before going back outside to houses coated in flames. He looked around to find his client but saw her nowhere and grabbed a person running past him with the small stream the ran by him as well. "Where is everyone going?" he demanded

"They're all going to the boats and getting out of here" she said before running away again. He took off in the same direction, but as he ran he saw soldiers grabbing people, one of which was Violet. A soldier had her by the throat and was chinking her with one hand. He ran over to her and drew his sword, slashing the occupied man in the back. "Where is everyone else?" he asked Violet. She coughed for a moment before choking out "They're at the boats by now". He grabbed her arm and brought her up and made his way with the few towards the boats.

Once he made it to the rocking beach that lay to the opposite side of where the soldiers emerged from the village, he saw her helping people into the boats, Eevee standing right beside her. He ran over to her her and grabbed her arm. "We're heading down, not across" Ash said.

"Are crazy! They'll catch us in no time".

Not under the cover of night. And if we go with these people they will suffer more than the already have" Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder halfway through his sentence.

Misty came up after hearing their plan. "Go now, we'll be fine"

May paused at that. "Now you see my point? So lets go" He slid his hand from her forearm to her hand and picked up Eevee and put her so she was on his other shoulder and sprinted down the edge of the beach till it ended and ran in the water and it went down up to the top of his knees.

Ash spared one last glance back at the village, but all he saw was houses covered and in flame and falling to the ground. A sight somehow familiar.

**That's chapter six for you guys, I hope you enjoyed. I am uploading this from a hotel room because I'm in Maryland for a tournament so i'm a little worried about if this will upload or not and knowing my luck, it probably won't. Hate, suggestions, and anything else you want is ****welcome as always. Thanks for reading, till next time**

**-novaking2832 **


	8. Chapter 7: The Lost Princess is Found

**Hello again everyone, I'm back from Baltimore and no longer need the horrible internet connection the hotel provided. Thanks to all who clicked on the story and to everyone who has commented so far, especially Sailor Taichichi Vegeta. You have commented on every chapter and I thank you for that. Anyway, now that I am back I have a shit load of homework to catch up on, Why? Because I left school early in the week so i could see my cousin stationed there as well. But screw that, I like you people better.**

**Sailor Taichichi Vegeta:**** I thought about a Fearow coming in too at some point, but there would be no excuse if they got out of that alive. If he lived through that he would be too overpowered. A skirt would make her seem more feminine I guess, pants just didn't seem like something she would have worn. So I went with an old raggedy skirt/dress thing. Does she seem like the type of girl to go around with a sword slashing and hacking down Pokemon or ****people? The answer is no, that's Ash's job. Where else was Tracey going live? I want to incorporate as many characters as possible while still moving the story along. Yeah I was visiting Baltimore and stayed at a crappy Comfort Inn. The cops came at around two and then five later on the second night because of a frat party or something. And on the first night I had to wake up early for my first match leaving my level of sleep at still haven't slept past six thirty in three weeks. Oh well, I have caffeinated tea and that's all I need. I won second and then first in doubles with my friend George who flew with me. So not bad, I won third in mixed doubles as well but I threw that medal out (she doesn't know I did though, that'd just hurt her feelings if I told her) There were only three teams competing and me and my partner lost to both so I never earned the medal, I just got something no else was there to take. Wow this is long.**

**Chapter 7: The Lost Princess is Found**

Ash was soaked. He had been running for a long time. It was daybreak already, still foggy and murky, but you could see the sun barley reaching the horizon. He had his hands on his knees and was breathing very hard. May lay on the ground next to him with Eevee poking a collapsed Pikachu who had begin to run with Ash halfway through the trip, facing upwards and breathing just as hard as Ash, if not harder. "I think. we. lost them" May said in between breaths

"I think we didn't, even have them, in the first place" Ash said with more composure than May, but he still couldn't form a sentence without pausing for breath.

May sat up at that "Than why were we running away like that!?" May shouted

Ash looked at her like she was stupid "You're right, next time we'll walk away from the soldiers hunting you down" Ash said, finally catching his second wind "Which reminds me, who the fucking hell are you that Giovanni goes though the trouble of burning down a village just to flush you out? At first I thought you were just a girl that cabbage head wanted to marry, but his desires weren't reciprocated hence you running away, but now, now you are someone Giovanni himself wants"

"You like the king?" May asks, now a little afraid of the possibility he was going to turn her in

Ash scoffed "Not fucking likely. That bastard can go rot in hell while I watch with a smile on my face"

"Then I don't see the problem. You hate the king so your causing him an inconvenience by helping me all the while still getting money out of it"

"You're right I do hate the tyrant king, but I'm not stupid enough to get his attention enough for him to either hire me or send soldiers to kill me" Ash said

May laughed "You had already been hired by him. You were searching for me in the Dark Forest weren't you?"

"Yeah but that was for the walking plant. He'd forget my name after he was done paying me" Ash retorted

"What is your name?" May asked

Pikachu's ears perked up at the question and he jumped to his feet and looked at Ash. Ash gland down at the now recovered Pikachu and shook his head, "My name is not something I go around using freely. It'd attract too much attention."

"You're an Aura Guardian aren't you? You already attract a lot of attention"

"Why in the fiery pits of hell would I join them?" Ash said

"But... you're wearing and Aura Guardian's hat aren't you? It looks a little different from the usual style but it's an Aura Guardian's hat. Were you disavowed or something? Why are you a mercenary now?"

Ash sighed "I've never been an Aura Guardian. I did, however, travel with one for a few months. Actually that's a lie, he's was still in training. But it looks different because I took off the band of cloth that goes around the top that has the Aura Guardian's emblem on it"

"Then how did you get the hat. And why take off the cloth?"

"He gave it to me to me and I don't want to be seen as something I'm not. That and I don't want people to think I actually am an Aura Guardian"

"Why not? They're working to save everyone in Sinnoh and Hoenn. After they're done there they will go help Johto and Kanto" May said

"You really don't know anything do you? The Aura Guardian's are confined to their islands except for training, getting food and visiting their families who have been relocated to the coast of Iron Island. Giovanni had attacked Sir Aaron's family, killing both his wife and his son so Sir Aaron, in order to protect the rest of the Aura Guardian's families, made a deal wit Giovanni that said they wouldn't interfere if their families could be moved to the coast and the other conditions I just told you about"

"That's horrible, Giovanni killed a child" May said

"And the town. Pallet Town no longer exists on the map"

"He burned the entire town down?"

"To the ground and six feet under" Ash said

"I knew he was a horrible person, but that is just evil. But just who is Sir Aaron? and how did he know that those people even had any contact with Sir Aaron? You would think that'd be something they kept a secret"

"Sir Aaron isn't the leader of the Aura Guardians but he might as well be. They follow his orders without question even though they run on a council. He is the most respected Aura Guardian out there, he was the Guardian that almost died by using his aura to stop a battle from happening on a place that has remained neutral throughout the war. The place would have probably been destroyed if he hadn't done that. So when his entire family is killed, all the Guardians feared that if Sir Aaron couldn't protect his own family, how could they protect theirs. As for how they knew he had a family, There's a mercenary that works under Giovanni. She's ruthless, brutal, heartless and above all, the best at what she does. I have no doubt that she got that information"

"How could he do something like that? That's inhumane"

Ash just looked at her. "How long were you in there to not know any of that? You know what, never mind. Let's just get going, I don't like staying in the same place longer than necessary"

He offered her his hand which she took and stood up. "This river is about a days travel from a place I know we'll be safe at for a little. I lost my money at some point during the night and we'll be able to stay at a place for free. All we need to do is go through another forest to the place and we'll have almost reached Hoenn" Ash said

"Is it going to be like the last one?" May asked fearfully, slightly clinging onto Ash's arm

Ash glanced at her arms rapped around his and frowned before freeing his arm "No. This one only had bandits and the Pokemon are more afraid of us than we are of them" He whistled to Pikachu who jumped on his shoulder before they turned and began to walk away. May stood for a moment before running to catch up with them, Eevee on her heels.

Not long after they had begun walking though a low rumbling could be heard. Ash sighed and May blushed a little. "How are you hungry? We ate like, eight hours ago"

"Exactly! that was a while ago and we've been running for a while. I think that we should stop and find something to eat" May said

"Well if this is how it's going to go then it'll take longer than a da-" his vision suddenly went blank and the last thing he heard was May screaming and Pikachu calling at him.

The first thing he noticed was that he was upside down and swaying back and forth. The second thing he noticed were the ropes securely fastened around his feet and wrists. He felt May's back pressed up against his own.

"It was too much trouble to capture these two" A gruff voice said. He looked to his left a little and there were five men, dressed in in baggy black pants and black combat boots. A red shirt with a hood was attached was wore and the hood covered some of their faces but you could still se their eyes. They all had masks that covered their noses and mouths, similar to the one that Ash had around his neck. They had one Pokemon with them, a Slugma that and been glaring at Pikachu and looked ready to launch an attack if need be. He saw Pikachu in metal chains sitting on the ground with Eevee chained to his back as well. Pikachu could use an attack without harming Eevee. He looked to his right and saw his sword, knives, bow, and arrows all piled in a heap.

"Fucking hell. These guys have absolutely no coin on them at all" one said. He was a little scrawny, he was skinny and small and had a short sword attached to his hip. Ash couldn't see much because he was going through his stiff with his back turned to him. "I knew we should have moved from the river back to the pathway through the woods" another one that seemed rather bulky said. He was tall and well built, He had a double edged axe on his back and his hoodie type of shirt was short for him, showing off his muscles.

"Shut up" a woman said "I doubt anyone would have been there. We were lucky even to find these to here, but no one uses that path anymore". She was about Ash's height, she had blueish hair that had two large strands coming from the front down to just below shoulder length. She had a regular sword strapped to her belt and a shield on her back.

"I think we should have gone with the boss into the town to win some money" the fourth one said "We haven't had any luck robbing people here and we have only managed to get good food because the boss knows how to fight in the ring". This one was a little taller than Ash. He had his own bow laid on the ground next to him and a quiver of arrows in his back. He had multiple knives placed on a strap that went around his chest that was probably meant to hold the quiver in place.

"I agree with Matt on this one" the final one said "The boss had been getting his ass beat, admittedly less than he dishes it out but none the less he has been busting his ass to get us decent food and water while we sit on our asses all day hoping for someone rich to come along", the one with the bow, now identified as Matt nodded his thanks. The fifth one was taller then Matt and had a longsword strapped to his back, he also had a shield on his back.

"Well David it's not like we can just let them go and say "no hard feelings". What are we supposed to do about them?" the woman asked. David shrugged "I don't know but I don't want to spill any unnecessary blood Samantha"

"How about we wait till the boss gets here. He'll know what to do with them" the scrawny one said. "We don't know when the boss is getting back Thomas" the big one said "It could be a while longer".

"Butch has a point, the boss doesn't want to cameo here after beating the crap out of some loser in the ring to come and deal with this anyway. We have to deal with this ourselves. We can't rely on the boss for everything" David said

"Agreed" Samantha said "The only thing that I can think of that would be safe to do, is kill them". Matt shifted uncomfortably at that. "I don't want to have to kill someone that hasn't done anything to deserve it" Matt said

"Well if we let them go they'll probably go and tell the guards. Then what'll we do?" Samantha said.

"Wait, please don't harm us" May said, still facing away from them. "Well looks like they're both awake now" Butch said

"Please, we're just travelers trying to get to the Hoenn region is all. If you let us go we will won't tell a soul that you robbed us" May pleaded

"How the hell can we be sure that you won't sprint to the city and tell the guards that we're here? You aren't making a convincing argument here. So far it's Me Butch and Thomas for killing you, and only Matt and David against it"

Butch looked at Ash "What about you? You aren't going to plead or come up with a treason for us to not kill you?"

Ash just looked at Butch calmly in the eyes "I have never once in my life pleaded for my life. I am not going to start now". You could see Butch grin behind his mask. "I like this guy, he's tough" Butch said

"So you change your vote?" Matt asked, Butch shook his head though "No, I like him, but he looks like he knows how to use that sword. I'm taking no chances"

"Sorry guys but it looks like you're going to die here" Samantha said. She drew her sword halfway out of here sheath before a hand grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

"Samantha, this is not how we treat old friends" the newcomer said. He was as tall as Ash and had a sword on his hip and a bow and quiver on his back. He also had a mask on, he wore no hood though so his white hair shoed with a black headband with a red half circle. His red eyes showed fierceness to him and his built stature showed he was a fighter. He wore a black jacket that hung loosely and unattached to its other end and had two thick red stripes going up the sides and then the half circle was again on the chest part, untouched by the two stripes on the sides. He had his other hand in his pants pocket which was also black and had shoes that had some red patterns on the main black color.

"Boss?" Butch said. The man glanced over at Butch before walking up to Ash and crouching so he was staring into the upside down Ash's eyes. "The masks won't be necessary, he knows who we are" the other five took down their makes and their hoods to reveal their faces. He pulled down his mask as well, reveling a grin on his face "It's nice to see you again, Ash" he said.

Ash couldn't help but grin back "Aren't you a sight for sore eyes Ruby. But, can you let us down now? the ropes are starting to hurt a little". Ruby nodded and stood up, he took an arrow from his quiver and sliced through the rope in a quick clean cut before returning the arrow back top its original position. Ash sat up, rubbing his head a little. "Thanks" he said. He turned and offered his hand once again to May how was still facing away from them. She reached out behind her and grabbed his hand before allowing him to help her up. She finally turned to get to see the people's faces. But the second they saw her's all their jaws dropped.

One by one they all bent on one knee, placing the opposite arm on the ground, bowing to Ash and May till it was just Ruby standing in front of them. "Rubyt what the hell is going on" Ash said. Ruby didn't even acknowledge Ash he simply looked at May "All hail the long lost princess of Hoenn, May Maple, daughter of Norman Maple the rebel king" he said while lowering himself into the same type of bow.

**I'm sorry everybody. This is a short chapter and I know it. I also am aware that (STOP READING NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT A SPOILER) Ruby does't have white hair and that's a hat, but I wanted to incorporate the white hair look to him since its what you see him as. Besides I think he looks good with his hair spiked up. Anyway, thanks to everyone who clicked on the story and to Sailor Taichichi Vegeta for commenting on every chapter. Comments, suggestions, ****encouragement, hate, and anything else are always welcome. Thanks again and till next time**

**-novaking2832**


	9. Chapter 8: The Magma Core

**Hello once again everyone, I'm back with chapter 8 and I hope this will be better than the last. For once they'll have help going around and doing things and much will be explained in this chapter. I would like to apologize once again for the short chapter last time. Granted the shortest was the first chapter, but still that was a pretty short one with not that much action in it. I would like to thank Sailor Taichichi Vegeta again for commenting on every chapter. Now, without further ****interruption, chapter 8**

**Sailor Taichichi**** Vegeta: First off thanks, I appreciate it. You're right they aren't ****ninjas, they actually have a reason for wearing the masks. I could say more, but you're going to find out who they ares in this chapter so I don't need to. Also what do you mean by enhanced-interrogated?**

**Chapter 8: The Magma Core**

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" Ash demanded from the still kneeling Ruby. Ruby stood up and looked at Ash, some confusion written on his face.

"You don't know who she is? I thought you smarter than that Ash" he said and looked back at May "She's the daughter of King Norman, she was taken away from the castle to Saffron where she has stayed for a lot of her life. It was Giovanni's insurance plan. As long as he has Miss Maple, the king wouldn't dream of attacking the castle or openly rebelling. But it appears that she is now out and about. No doubt with the guards on your tail"

Ash turned to May "Why didn't you tell me? Did you think I would back out? That I couldn't handle escorting a princess around. Or was it something else? Did you think I would try to get more out of you, maybe turn you back into Giovanni for a bigger reward? Yeah well I'm starting to wish I had" Ash said angrily

"I just didn't think that-" May started

"I don't want to hear excuses. You should've told me from the start" Ash said before turning around and storming throughout the woods. Pikachu began to run after him but Ash turned and glared at Pikachu before saying "Don't follow me Pikachu" with that he turned back around and walked angrily out of sight.

You would've never seen a Pokemon so depressed before in your life. Pikachu sat where Ash left, head down, looking sad and in pain. Ruby walked up to Pikachu and patted him on the head lightly. "Cheer up buddy, he'll be back soon. He just needs to blow off steam"

"How do you know that?" May asked

"Because he left Pikachu here. I know Ash on a personal level, not something many people can say. And of there's one thing that guy is, it's loyal. He's loyal to his friends and would die for them no matter how pissed he gets. He'll be back for Pikachu when he calms down"

"So that's his name, Ash" May said in wonder

"He didn't tell you? That makes sense actually, and it means you're even. Follow us back to our campsite, we have all our thing there Princess" Ruby said turning to his comrades. May nodded and began to follow them but stopped for a moment and turned to look at the spot where Ash disappeared, Pikachu now trudging after Ruby, before turning back and following everyone else. No one noticed the local Normal type take off after Ash soon after he left.

-With Ash-

He had been slashing up a tree for a while. It wasn't just this little discovery that made him want to kill something, it's just how he vented. He would build up a lot of anger from a month or something and one day let it all out on something. He usually did that during training, which helped him improve immensely, but this was what drove him over the edge, being doubted was the worst. When he was with Meowth everyone thought he wouldn't get the job done. they doubted him so much as to the point of telling him to go home. Meowth would have to accept the job and Ash would do the dirty work and Meowth would bring back the results and just give Ash the money. And she doubted him, she doubted him a lot. He couldn't care less if she was a princess. She was a client and anything that would affect the job should be told to him immediately. It was the number one rule in his business.

Soon the tree he had been mercilessly mauling had all of its bark torn form the a large area from the front. The wooden part of the tree showing clearly from each slash. Ash stood in front of the tree, slightly out of breath before sheathing his sword and turning to find a new target only to come "face to face" with May's Eevee.

He looked at it with a bored expression "Leave me alone" he said and turned to find something to vent upon. But Eevee just ran in front of him and sat in his way. "I said leave me alone" Ash said again, this time allowing anger to seep into his tone. Eevee just shook her head again.

Ash walked till he was looming over Eevee, casting a shadow over the small normal type. "Leave me alone" he said once more, venom dripping in his voice as he slowly redrew his sword. Eevee jumped up causing him to death his half unsheathed sword and catch her in his arms. She nuzzled her head into his chest and despot his anger, he smiled.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he said a little sarcastically, placing Eevee on the ground in front of him and sitting cross legged a few feet opposite of her, knowing that Eevee wouldn't have said anything if May didn't want her to. Eevee just shrugged and looked at him. "Couldn't you have said something? Like as a favor to Pikachu, you're like in love with him or something right?"

Eevee looked a little embarrassed at the his jumping to love so fast. "Vee vee" she said. Ash had some trouble figuring put what she meant, but after a second of think he responded with "Apology accepted" he sighed and looked art the ground, tearing some grass continuously "I was a real dick to Pikachu wasn't I?" Eevee nodded.

He sighed again "I better apologize when I get back. But I owe May no apology, if anything she owes me one" Eevee just cocked her head to one side. "Damnit stop looking so cute" Ash said "You're actually making me regret leaving".

Eevee laughed at that before jumping into his lap and nuzzling in his chest again. "Alright I get the message, I'll go back now" Ash said with a chuckle, bringing his arm up towards his shoulder which Eevee jumped on. He began to walk back in the direction that they came form. "Hey doesn't get get uncomfortable being carried by May? I mean, she got you paws over her forearms, but other than that your just dangling". "Vee!" Eevee said "Alright, alright I'm sorry" Ash said. "Vee vee vee" Eevee said with a sly loos on her face 'Oh you're one to talk about checking out other people's bodies. You can't accuse me of checking out May while you cuddle with Pikachu ever other second" he said in a joking manor

-With May-

It was a small campsite, nothing too special. Ruby's bedroll was set up underneath the roots of a giant tree and the others had various spots of their choosing. The one called David had his in a tree and was currently resting on a makeshift hammock that was created through the use of various types of rope making a not so pretty looking hammock. Functionality over beauty though. She was currently sitting with Ruby and Pikachu who was sitting in Ruby's lap, still looking sad. "So what do you want to know about Ash that I can tell you about without him getting pissed?" Ruby asked

May hesitated for a moment, thinking about what would be off limits and what wouldn't "Why don't we start with how you two met" May said

Ruby nodded "It was a couple of years ago, we were in Hoenn at the time.

-FLASHBACK-

_Five years ago_

_Ruby had been practicing for hours. This is what he did when he had too much on his mind, he would train and train and train. And recently, he had a lot on his mind. It was so much easier to forget about his problems by hacking and slashing his sword, firing arrow after __arrow at his target. Doing push-ups till he collapsed, crunches till he couldn't bend, running till he couldn't stand, or punching a tree till his knuckles bled. These rhythmic things, these painful and strenuous thing kept his mind of of all the other problems he had. _

_Sapphire_

_The name that plagued his mind like flies to a corpse. She was rash, proud, arrogant, and self centered, so why the fuck did he have to like her. She always caused him pain, whether it's physical abuse, or she teases and makes fun of him for being a girl. He had never been a girl. She liked to tease him about that because she was one who always beat him at everything, hence making him the weaker one and a "girl" in her eyes. He usually let her win too, it was just how he is. Other times she would win no matter how hard he tried, but that was to be expected. She was determined to beat him at everything, but she would never know that he held back when they trained together. _

_Determined. That is a good word to describe her, she was determined. Recently her determination was to join the Aqua Guard. They protected King Norman personally and we're the best of the best, using their water types to perfection, only rivaled by the infamous Magma Core. They used their fire types exemplary, they're earned their names the the flames of hell. They were known for going deep into enemy lines on suicide missions and either coming back with their heads held high and their brothers on their backs, or being sent back as a pile of corpses. Their bravery was known throughout the world, and their leader was one of the greatest heroes there was. Maxie was his name, while a renowned hero he was also the one who personally selected the Magma Core members. _

_His most recent choice was Ruby_

_Ruby didn't know how Maxie even knew he existed but one day he came __home and their he was, sitting on his couch with his mother and father sitting across from him. His dad was beyond happy, his son was going to become a Magma Core member, something he himself had wanted to be since he could talk. His mom however looked about ready to cry. He heard them shouting later that night, he never wanted to hear them shouting. But the next day after training Maxie was in his room, the hero of Hoenn was sitting on his bed, in his room. He should feel honored, but he only felt sad. They had a long talk, mostly Maxie talking to him and Ruby nodding his head a few times. He had wanted to be with the Aqua Guard, with Saph. It's all he trained for, but it looks like that training was what caught the attention of Maxie. And now he was a core. That's what the members of the Magma Core were called. It seemed rather fitting, people said they had a "fire in their hearts that is unmatched throughout the world". Yeah, he didn't have a problem being called a core, just what came with it. Maxie ended our little talk with some philosophical crap about "we are all embers to a larger flame". I guess he was right._

_He never told her that he was chosen, he faked his smiles, fakes his laughs and just continued to be the machine they wanted him to be. Soon though she left, she finally made it in. She had asked him why he didn't even try to get in, but I didn't respond. She would figure it out soon. The members of each faction faced each other off. Each leader if the faction showed off their members to the king, Maxie always bragged about his soldiers fearlessness, and the Magma embers had the right to brag that they were hand chosen by the hero of Hoenn. If you could see the look on Saph's face when she saw me at Maxie's side, him praising me about what I am doing now. Doing push-ups till I collapse, shooting arrows till the tips break off, slashing till my blade dulls, and working till I can't stand anymore. She was shocked that I, Ruby, the loser and weakling she knew her entire life was getting personally praised by the hero of Hoenn. Man, she was pissed off to say the least. I didn't have to deal with it though, I honestly would have preferred to rather than not seeing her at all._

_But our training ground we exact opposites, we trained at Mount Chimney, they trained at Lilycove City. I hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye. Then again, she left without saying goodbye. She must've been really pissed, usually she would take it out on me. But the entirety of the new magma recruits were taken to Mount Chimney and we trained from dusk till dawn or until we couldn't move. I was one of the few who hadn't collapsed from exhaustion. Sometimes, like now, I would come back in the middle of the night and train even more. Some say its crazy other say it suicidal. My joints seem to agree with them. But i do it because of her. She haunts my dreams __like a Gengar. Will I ever be able to make this up to her? Why was she so pissed in the first place? These were the things that gave him nightmares._

_So he continued to swing away this poor tree stump. Its bark was almost gone on all sides, some from him, some from others now and in the past. But it was one of the few things that helped calm him, keep his mind from her._

_"You know I think that tree has seen enough punishment to know not to mess with the Magmas" a voice said_

_Ruby's head snapped up to look at the boy sitting in the tree a few meters away, his back against the tree, one leg stretched out along the branch he sat on and the other swing lazily back and forth below the tree. Ruby silently cursed himself, he had been so absorbed in his training that he hadn't noticed this person._

_"Who are you and what do you want?" Ruby demanded, pointing his sword at the stranger_

_"Well I'm a person who's been coming here to train, but every time I come I see you here. Slicing away at that poor tree for hours before you start with the push-ups and crunches and so forth. As to what I want, I want a training partner. And by the way you__'ve been training I'd say you're a little worse than me" the stranger said._

_"Not interested, I'm a Magma Core member. I have all the retraining partners I need" Ruby said_

_"Ah but none that can keep up with you" He said with a smirk_

_Ruby just glared at the fact that this man was right "Look I appreciate the offer but I can't abandon my training for a total stranger that could be dangerous and leading me into a trap"_

_"Smart, but if I wanted to kill you I would've done it last week when you fell down that slope while running and dislocated your shoulder and then shoved back into place before going on like nothing ever happened" Ruby's eyes widened at that. "You see, I'm not here to hurt you. I just want someone better to train with"_

_"I still can't abandon my training" Ruby said. "I'm not asking you too, just come here every night like you have been doing since you got here" the man said _

_"How did you-" Ruby started "Because I've been camped out around here longer than you guys have been staying here" the man said_

_"Who are you?" Ruby asked __again_

_The man smirked once more "I'll tell you if you can beat me. Hell I'll tell you my while godamn life story if you can beat me"_

_Ruby got into a defensive stance "I'm ready when you are"_

_"Not now, you've been training for hours, you're too tired. Just go back to sleep and be back here tomorrow, then we'll have our match"_

_-_END FLASHBACK- **(Note Ruby never said the part about him thinking about Sapphire)**

"Did you beat him?" May asked

Ruby smiled and shook his head "I was good but he kicked my ass" Ruby went into his pack and brought out a black book. He opened the book and went to a certain page before giving it to May.

"What is this?" May asked. "It's called the Black Book. It's a collection of every person that is considered an immediate threat to someone. As you can see Ash is ranked number thirty four out of the top one hundred. I'm ranked number seventy seven"

May looked back at the boom that held all the information on Ash.

_Name: Unknown, referred to as the Ranger_

_Occupation: Mercenary, does jobs for hire in all regions. Commonly found at the Obsidian Onix located in Saffron City, Kanto_

_Description: Black hair, brown eyes, usually wears a hat similar to that of an Aura Guardian, dressed in a black cloak wight here straps to adorn weapons, wields a sword, four knives, a bow with arrows, and a Pikachu with advanced combat skills_

_Warning Level: B to a high C. If seen, proceed with caution. Do not attempt to attack without back up or a higher ranking. _

"What's his full name?" May asked

Ruby thought for a moment "I don't think he'll get mad if you know his name, it's Ash Ketchum"

"Ash Ketchum" May repeated "I like it"

"Do you now" Ruby said with a smirk. May blushed a little and looked embarrassed "Don't worry, he tends to have that affect on people. Giving them a sense of awe and wonder"

"But wait, you're part of Hoenn's Magma Core?"

Ruby nodded "We all are. This is all that's left of the once mighty Magma Core" he said while gesturing to his companions that went about their business around him

"What happened?" May asked

"We all went on suicide missions that failed. Butch and Thomas were sent on an attack on Saffron that failed completely. Their entire force was wiped out and only they survived. Samantha was in charge of taking out an enemy base close to Saffron but all those under her command died so she left her post after sending word of her failure back to the castle. Matt was one of the archers in the Magma Core. He lost his squad while they were coming back from a mission in deep Johto and his wife took a sword for him, he lives in shame of himself now. David was in my squad. We were charged with attacking an enemy garrison all the way in Kanto. We went with some Aqua members because it was rumored there was a traitor giving information away which was a direct threat to the king hence their involvement" he paused for a moment, not wanting to remember.

"The Magma Core was left to fend for ourselves while the Aqua Guard retreated. They didn't even lose a single man while we lost our hero and leader. Maxie died laying next to me, passing on the chain of command to me. I am the current leader of the Magma Core. David is a witness to that. We got cornered at a rock. We helped the Aqua members up first and they were supposed to help us up after but they turned and left because they saw the enemy appear around the corner. I had almost made it, but the person who was helping me up had the choice of me or the last Aqua member and she took the Aqua member. That left me and the rest of the Magma troop to fight a small army. Only David and I made it out along with my Blaziken. And in some way or another, we all came together to form the last of the Magma Core"

"If you're the leader than Maxie must have given you the crest" May said

Ruby nodded and reached into his pocket and pulled out a solid gold medallion that formed a circle with the ends of the cross imprinted on it sticking out on the ends a little, its obsidian M covering most of the the indented cross.

"I've only seen that once. Is it true that the M is made out of Groudon's hide" May asked

Ruby smiled and nodded "It must've been a pain in the ass to get though. Both finding and getting the material"

Suddenly a Blaziken jumped down from seemingly nowhere. "Blaz blaziken" it said.

"Thank you Blaziken return to your post" Ruby said. The Blaziken nodded and jumped onto a tree branch and headed from the direction May assumed it came from. "He said that Ash is on his way here, with your Eevee on his shoulder"

May gasped having not even noticed her friends missing absence. "I knew something didn't feel right when we got here"

"Well they should be here any second-"

"Now" Ash ended

Ruby looked up and smiled "Hello Ash, done massacring some trees?" he said jokingly

"It was more of a mass genocide but yeah I'm done" Ash responded in the same joking manor. Ash's smile disappeared before he turned to Pikchu who was looking up at him. "Pikachu I'm sorry about back there, I was being a dick and I apologize" Pikachu's mood did a complete backflip and he jumped at his friend's unoccupied shoulder and rubbed his cheek against Ash's causing Ash to laugh and scratch Pikchu behind his earning a soft cu from his friend.

When he turned to May he looked at her with a straight face and said "I owe you an apology too, but if there's one thing I hate, it's being misled. So I apologize to you as well Miss Maple"

May stood up and laughed a bit "It okay Ash and I'm the one who should be apologizing for keeping that from you. I just wasn't sure if you'd turn me in or not. And please call me May"

Ash raised an eyebrow when she said Ash but said nothing, only glancing at Ruby who just shrugged from his sitting position.

"So Ruby, do you mind if we stay here for the night and set out tomorrow?" Ash asked

Ruby shrugged "Sure. Princess Maple can have my bedroll and you and I will sleep in the trees like the good 'ol days" Ruby said, saying the last part with sarcasm.

Ash nodded, "Alright, thanks though. I owe you one"

"Oho, a favor from the infamous Ash Ketchum. This is something I'll look forward to using" Ruby says deviously

Ash rolled his eyes "Whatever, what should I make for dinner?"

Ruby shrugged again "We can go down to the town and get some supplies, or eat at a tavern and come back here. I just earned some money at the ring"

"You earn money by fighting?" May said. Samantha joined the conversation at that point, "Yeah, one of the few ways we gain money is by fighting in the ring. Mostly the boss does it though. He has an undefeated record although he almost lost once. Which reminds me, how did it go today? I'm not seeing so much as a scratch on you so I assume it went well"

"It went on without a hitch. The guy was a bitch through and through. He was all talk and no skill. Why James sets me up with guys is beyond me" Ruby said while sighing

"Hey at least you're winning and bringing back coin" Thomas said. "We hardly get anything anymore. All the rich Kanto people don't come around here"

"But neither do the soldiers. I don't know about you, but I'd rather live a life where I eat scraps rather than eat living Pokemon in one of Giovanni's prisons" David said from his hammock. "But we should go get supplies from the town, I don't like to stay any longer then I have to"

"Hell no. We haven't eaten a decent meal in months. Let's go to the town and eat in the tavern" Samantha said. "I agree with Samantha" Butch said and Thomas nodded next to him. "Well I agree with David, and so does Scorch" Matt said while patting the Slugma that had been with them

"Bullshit, the Pokemon don't count" Samantha said. The Slugma angered at that and shot a weak flamethrower at Samantha but she docked and it hit Butch. Butch roared in anger and you could see Thomas backing away slowly. Just as Butch was about to lunge at Matt Ruby stood

"Enough. Ash and I are going to the town to get supplies and that's final. If the Princess is seen then any chance of Ash getting her home is gone" Ruby said. The effect was immediate, everyone instantly calmed down and accepted his orders and went about their business again while Ash and Ruby began walking away

Later that night only Ruby and Ash remained awake. "I never knew you knew how to cook Tauros so well" Ruby said

"That's what happens when you have a tavern keeper as a mentor" Ash responded. "But he wasn't always a tavern keeper. He was just like you at one point" Ruby said

"Yeah, he was. And those were some of the best days of my life" Ash said. Ash's face turned serious suddenly "How's Sapphire?"

Ruby looked down at that, shadows covering his eyes "I wouldn't know. Last time I saw her she was running away hand in hand with her new boyfriend and leaving me behind to die" He said darkly

"Come on. It wasn't her boyfriend and you know it" Ash said "I understand the fact that hold a grudge, I mean who wouldn't. But you still love her don't you?"

"I know that it was her boyfriend. I saw them on one of the days we were traveling. So unless she makes out with every teammate she's with they're dating" Ruby said

Ash flinched at his tone but regained himself and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder "I'm sorry, I didn't know"

"You have nothing to be sorry about. But that bitch said she loved me and then goes ahead and does that" Ruby spat out the word love

Ash just stayed silent. "Ash why don't you just gland get some sleep. I'll take first watch, I don't think I'm going to be sleeping tonight" Ruby said

Ash gave Ruby a sympathetic look before nodding, catching the hint that Ruby wanted to be alone. He jumped to another branch and pulled his hat over his eyes. He knew that Ruby probably had nightmares very night because of her. And he didn't blame him. All he knew is that just gave Ruby another reason to stay up that night

**Well that was chapter 8. Not much happened and the last chapter was so short that I figured I'd just do the next ****chapter to make up for it. Anyway though thanks for clicking on the story and I hope you enjoyed it. Encouragement, criticism, suggestions, hate and anything else are always welcome.**

**-novaking2832**


	10. Chapter 9: Flames Reignited

**Hello everyone, I'm back once againwith chapter 9. I hope you enjoyed the lastquick update. I wanted to make up for the last rather short and with no action update with one that was longer. Even though the secons had no action in it either. Maybe I should have done a flashback of a battle. I don't know I might just do that. But I'm so happy now because it's vacation and I get to go see my dad in Texas! Maybe even go back to Liverpool for a bit. But anyway thanks to everyonw who clicked on my story, it's very appreaciated and I hope you enjoyed it.**

**Ultratron562:**** Crap. I completely forgot they ****look exactly the same. Well thanks for pointing that out at least, but as of right now they don't.**

**Sailor Taichichi**** Vegeta:**** Or they could roast someone's toes of the flame of a Charizard's tail. No, the Man did not get Meowth, they'll see him later on. Maybe in this chapter if I make it long enough. Aaron and J are the obvious ones. As for Archie, I don't know I might have them fight now just to see what would come to mind as a write. Hm, I'm not sire if I should keep the Frantic (Is that what it's called?) positive or negative. I only made it that way so there could be another subplot. I don't know, can you?**

**Advanceforeverandafter: Thanks, I'll be sure to. I hope you enjoy the rest.**

**Pretty good: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it. But, I don't think that's my style of writing, I can't do Pokemon battles well. I'm more of a man to man/Pokemon to Pokemon to the death fight where the result it victory or death rather than "Snivy fainted". But it doesn't mtter if you don't think you have the skill. Just do it, I'm obviously not the best writer there is but that didn't stop me.**

**Chapter 9: Flames Reignited**

Ruby hadn't slept the entire night. It was obvious even though the nags under his eyes were almost invisible and he showed no signs of fatigue. Ash had stayed up many nights and once had to go five days wothout sleeping because he was being hunted. A few berries and self inflicted injury was all that kept him awake. But when he didn't sleep you could at least tell if you studied him for a bit. Ash had to ask if anyone else was woken up for gurad duty to figure out that he hadn't slept. I was his fault and he knew it. He shouldn't have asked that question, it wasn't even his place to ask. He had only known Sapphire for a little bit.

"Hey Ruby you feeling okay?" Ash asked. Ruby looked up, almost in the exact same position he had been in when Ash left. Ruby nodded in return and put on a smile. "Good enough to kick your ass" He said with a grin. At least he held no grudge against Ash for bringing it up, otherwise he would have just left his answer as a nod.

"That's good to hear" Ash said "Are you going to be escorting us all the way to the castle?"

Ruby smile faltered for a moment "We'll bring you as far as we can go without attracting attention" he responded.

Ash nodded "Thanks, I appreciate it".

"Anything for a friend" Ruby said absently, looking back out into the woods again. Ash walked back towards the sleeping areas. He sat down next to the still sleeping May "Oi, oi. Wake up" he said while nudging her. She just groaned and turned away from him. He sighed and took the blanket off of her. She groaned again and crossed her arms to her shoulders as if hugging herself and curled into a ball. "Get up or you'll miss breakfast" Ash said. The second the word "breakfast" left his mouth May's eyes snapped open. She lept out of bed and sent Eevee flying through the air who landed on the unsuspecting Pikachu. And dashed to the "kitchen" which was really just the campfire with various objects used as seats.

Ash raised an eyebrow at her reaction "She likes food huh? I'll remember that" he said, making a mental note himself. "Pikachu" he called out. He looked around but didn't see his friend anywhere. "Hey Pikachu!" he called again, this time Pikachu came out from around a tree looked dazed and stumbling around. Ash crouched down in front of Pikachu and put a hand on his back to steady Pikachu. "Are you alright, you look like hell. What happened?" Ash asked. Behind Ash Eevee was walking. she turned and gave Pikachu a wink before going on her merry way again. Pikachu flinched and began to scramble away but Ash's hand prevented him from running. "What happened to you buddy?" Ash muttered to himself as he held up the still running Pikachu by his tail.

He set the now slightly calmer Pikachu down and walked back to thew kitchen where breakfast was being served. He sat across from May who had Eevee in her lap and, unnoticed to all but the resident Slugma, winked at Pikachu more who lowered his head. Ash began taking helping for himself and gave the last of it to Pikachu. He stood after allowing Pikachu a chance to jump from his lap and looked at May. "We'll be moving out shortly, so get ready" he said before turning and preparing his own stuff. Thomas jumped up "Alright we get to serve again!" he yelled in excitement. Butch grabbed him by his shoulder and pulled him back to his seat. "Calm down Thomas, serving in the Magma Core isn't something you should be happy about" Butch said. Thomas looked slightly deflated but still had the excitement in his eyes.

Ash turned with all his equipment strapped on to see everyone getting ready, he whistled to Pikachu indicating he was ready to move and Pikachu jumped on his shoulder. Eventually everyone was ready to move and Ash turned to head out "Let's go".

-Ruby's POV-

I didn't blame Ash for bringing up a hard subject. Besides, he had every right to know. Ash trusted me with his past so the least I could do was tell him about my present. It was my fault for staying up, but the nightmares her worse every night. The corpses littering the ground, the smell of blood heavy in the air, and the blood covering me.

I'm a monster

I the lowest of the low. How could I be worthy of leading the Magma Core if I couldn't even lead myself down the right path? I beat other people for a living and I let those under my command rob anyone who seems like they'd have coin on them. If my family could see me now. Would dad be ashamed? I know my mother would disown me on the spot. Were they sad when they heard I had died? Dad would probably just shake his head in disappointment, Mom might have shed a tear. But that doesn't matter, I'm dead after all. I wonder if the Aqua Guard told of how we fought with valor and heroism, or if they said that we failed our mission and should be disgraced in the history books. Maybe they even told the truth and said we were slaughtered as they ran away.

No, they probably said that we fell behind during the retreat and most likely ended the report with "The Magma Core had been extinguished" or some corny shit like that. It wouldn't surprise me.

Why does Thomas seem so happy? This is technically serving the royal family of Hoenn again. Technically, we're soldiers serving in the armed forces again. That isn't something we can be. It's not something we deserve. We'd have to earn our place back in the Hoenn ranks. Do something remarkable to gain our honor back, but how could we do that with six people? We can't.

So we'll only go to the border, then it's all up to them. The border wasn't far either. Just a little bit further up and we'd be golden.

Wait, this is wrong. Where are all the birds? There isn't a single noise coming from the forest. That never happens unless a Dragon type is coming through, they demand the respect and fear from the other Pokemon. They all go silent when one walks through. It doesn't matter, we're almost there anyway. We can avoid it if necessary, they aren't the quietest things in the world so it won't be hard to tell when he's coming around.

Ruby stopped before his team and they all stopped with him, Ash turned to look at them "Is this where you all stop?" he asked. I nodded in response. May looked at me "Why don't you come with us? They's give you a heroes welcome when you return to them".

I shook my head "We can't go back your highness. We have disgraced ourselves, the Magma Core, the king, and all of Hoenn. Such disgraces aren't worthy to go back" I said

"That's not true, you would be more than welcome at the castle" May said

"I'm sorry, but we have no right to go into Hoenn anymore. That's why we stay here, the last of the Magma Core. We're a dying breed, something that won't continue till our disgrace has been resolved or until we are needed again. But until any of these things happen, we will stay here"

"You must come with us thou-" the Princess was cut off though. An arrow embedded itself right under my leg, barley missing my calf.

"GET DOWN" I yelled

-Normal POV-

We all hit the ground as a few more arrows flew over our heads. The second they stopped we all jumped up, Ash standing in front of May protectively while the rest got in a defensive line. Ruby took out his own bow and fired in the general direction the arrows came form. At first nothing happened, Ruby notched another arrow into the bow and waited.

Soldiers burst from the trees and ran at the group, all of them with the Kanto crest on their breast plates. Matt began to fire his arrows and Ruby fired the one he had left notched in his bow before slinging it over his shoulder and drawing his sword. Each person was engaged in combat. Ruby hacked and slashed, falling back to defend before going on the offensive again. Pikachu kept into battle, he jumped and turned, electrocuting anyone that got close. He used iron tail as a sword and fended off any attackers that tried to get to May or Eevee.

Thomas was nowhere to be seen. It looked like he disappeared but a second later he appeared and stabbed an enemy in the back with his short sword before diving back into the underbrush and popping out somewhere new for a surprise attack. Butch lay waste to all that came his way. His massive axe turned into the weapon of mass destruction, each swing that didn't connect with flesh dug into a tree, cutting halfway through it before Butch took the bade out and began the next one. Matt looked like death itself, He was hell's angel. His hood and mask were put on at some point and he fired arrow after arrow at the approaching enemy. One got close but the calm look never left his eyes. The enemy slashed at Matt, trying to decapitate him but he ducked under the blow and pointed his bow upwards form his crouched position, his hand almost touching the ground from its drawn back position. He fired the arrow and it went straight into the head of his enemy. And when another soldier came close enough and gave him a slash, he spun around till the soldier's back was facing him. The soldier turned to come face to face with matt's calm but cold stare, and arrow drawn back but still inches from his throat. Matt didn't even release the arrow, he pushed it forward so it impaled into the soldier's throat and slashed his neck open and using the momentum to turn around and fire the arrow at an incoming enemy.

Samantha fought enemy after enemy, she stood and fought ferociously. No strike reached her, soldier after soldier came down, raining blows like a hail storm but nothing made contact. Be it by dodging, blocking by the shield, or a parry by sword, nothing seemed to make contact with her. Her strikes driving them back into the forest, leaving no man in her sight unharmed. David used his longsword to the fullest. His strikes left no one unmarked as he made his way through the enemies. It was like he was marking his enemies, claiming them as his kill, that his handiwork had caused this slaughter if the king's "great army". Well this great army was being obliterated by his longsword and they could do nothing but throw their bodies at his sword.

And Ruby. He had certainly earned the title of the "Red Eyed Reaper" as they called him in the Black Book. Everything in his path turned into his own weapon. He made their swords pierce each other, their arrows kill their comrades. Even the trees seemed to fight for him. Be it a spin to dodge a sword or a duck to abios an arrow, a tree seemed to appear to block the strike of another enemy that seemed like he would have killed Ruby. But he just appeared on the other side of the tree and with fury in his eyes he took them out. This is why they were the Magma Core. They were worthy of the title in all aspects. They always said that when you defeat the Magma Core you only delay your death, for now it is certain that you will perish, your last sight being the red and black of their uniform. Finally there was the "Black Death of Kanto". Ash fought with two knives for a change, a dangerous way to fight if you didn't know how to use them. He was up close and personal with his enemies, going face to face with them before they felt him impaling them with one of his blades, sometimes both. Every motion was fluid, every strike hits its mark, and every kill added to the pile of bodies around him. Just how many were there? They seemed nonstop as they flowed from the trees, a seemingly unending stream of soldier with the intent to kill. And when it looked like they wouldn't stop they were gone. It seemed so quick, like one moment they we're there and the next they weren't.

Everyone was breathing hard, but even in their exhaustion Ash bolted towards May who stood face to face with a soldier, his body blocking Ash's view of May. But he fell to the ground right before Ash got there. And when Ash fought his eyes up to see what had happened, he saw his knife covered in blood and in May's trembling hand. Her eyes filled with terror.

"H-h-h-he w-wouldn't s-s-stop c-c-coming a-after m-m-me" she said with a shaky voice. "I h-had n-no c-choice. I-i-it w-w-asn't m-my f-f-fault". Ash stepped closer to her and geld her arm and took the blade from her hands. She flinched at the contact and jumped back, still think she had a knife in her hands she pointed air at him. "S-stay a-away!" she shouted at him. Eevee tried to console her friend but May pointed her air blade at Eevee too, just the thought of May threatening her was bought for Eevee to become visibly depressed. Ash kept taking step after step closer to her though. And just when he got close enough he wrapped his arms around her.

She froze at the contact

It broke her out of her traumatized state. And she broke down. Tears began to pour down her cheeks and she let out a choked sob before burying her face in Ash's chest and crying. He slowly went down so he was sitting on the ground with her basically in his lap. Everyone reacted differently on their first kill. Most reacted like she did, they burst in to tears. Both men and woman usually did something along the lines of this. Ash remembered when he first killed a person. Meowth had been trapped in a corner by a guy he was supposed to rob for a contract. Ash had come home early from his and seen what was happening. He didn't hesitate to plunge his dagger into the back of the man. At first he thought "Meowth is safe", then he realized what he had done. He had killed a fellow human being. But he didn't shed a tear, he didn't break down, he just looked at the body before kicking it. "He deserved it" were his only words, a cold look on his face. Ash had already killed Pokemon, he had to. He lived in the woods after all, it's not like he could go to the store and buy something with his non existent money. He had to hunt and that man was another predator like him, so he had to take out the competition.

Despite looking invincible in battle then Magma Core was cut up and bleeding. They looked tired and exhausted, but they didn't check their wounds. they could only look at their Princess crying after having to kill someone. Something that they were supposed to make sure never happened. there duty was to serve the royal family, and they were just about to walk away from the long lost Princess. What kind of soldiers were they?

Ruby walked to them and crouched a few feet away from Ash "We'll take you to the castle" he said. Ash looked up from the crying May and nodded before looking back down at May. After a little while May stopped crying and sat there in Ash's arms, an empty look in her eyes. Ash basically hulled her up from her sitting position and stood with her clinging to his arm as if it was her lifeline. "Ready when you are" Ash said in a soft voice. May nodded her head dully.

Ruby nodded and went back to his squad. "Everyone patch yourselves up, we're heading out soon" everyone nodded and grabbed a pouch in their belts that were identical to each other. They were the standard Magma Core medical kit. They began to tend to themselves and each other. Samantha had a gash along her stomach that David was tending to. David had a scrape alone this cheek and visible tear in his cloths that were stained with blood. Butch had a scratches all over his body. Thomas had taken an arrow in the back of his shoulder and Butch was in the muddle of pulling it out. He yelped like a girl. The only person that didn't seem to have a scratch on them was Matt. He was calming looking at Ruby who was in the middle of pulling the broken off blade of a knife from his gut.

"How did you not notice that there was about and inch of a blade in your stomach when we were done fighting?" Matt asked in a sarcastic voice. Ruby just grunted in response. Not being able to talk because he had one of Matt's knives in his mouth so he could bite on it. He took a sharp intake of breath as he pulled the three inch broken blade from his gut. Blood began to pour from the wound and before anyone could say anything he drove it back in the wound. He face was contorted in pain but he smiled and said "I'll leave it there till the bleeding stops".

Matt shook his head "You're insane". Ruby grinned "You're figuring this out now?"

Matt chuckled at that before taking Ruby over to a tree and setting him down so her could treat his wounds. Ash did nothing to treat his, the blood had dried up anyway. They only needed to be covered for infection now but it didn't look like May was going to let go anytime soon, and he wasn't going to make her. So he sat himself and her against a tree and watched the others tend to each other while ignoring the pain. He looked at May "Are you going to be alright?" he asked.

May just looked up at him "How do you do it? Hoe do you keep killing without a second thought?" she asked. Ash sighed and leaned his head against the tree so he could look at the sky. "I grew up in the woods alone for about half my life. I lived with Pokemon and there was only one rule, one standing. You were either prey or the predator. So naturally I became the predator to survive. I hunted with my pack, practiced fighting with my friends, and ate what I killed. Sometimes other predators would attack you to eliminate competition and you had to kill them or they'd just come back. It was the only way of life I knew. So when I killed my first human it was nothing knew. He was about to prey on my friend, the only person who taught me about the human world which was unknown to me until he showed up. When I first met him he was muttering in English, which drew me in. I knew what a Meowth was but I had ever heard now say anything other than "Meowth". So I followed him around for a while, watching him fail at hunting in my territory" Ash smiled when he remembered Meowth's bad hunting talent "But I started copying what he was saying. Some of the first things he taught me were curse words" Ash said, chuckling a bit "But after years of teaching I was finally like a real boy, except his job was being a mercenary. And so as you would expect I joined him in his missions and that led to him being cornered which is when I drove a knife into a man's back. I'm not proud of my skills, but it's the inly life I've ever known. I does get easier as you keep going though. The nightmares aren't that bad anymore, but I still don't like going to sleep anymore. Ruby is the same way. Most mercenaries and soldiers are, and I'm sorry that i had to make you experience something like that, it wash;t my intention" Ash said

May shook her head "It's not your fault. You couldn't have kept all those men at bay. If it weren't for all of them then we;d probably be red right now" She said while gesturing to the other members of their group. "I'd be dead" Ash corrected "You'd be heading back to Saffron". May shuddered, how did you fight without getting hurt though? I figured you would have been injured" May said

Ash grimaced "I'm not exactly scathe free right now May" he said. May jumped up suddenly "You've been hurt this while time and you didn't do anything about it!" she shouted angrily. Ash flinched "Well you were my first priority so..." May's face turned red and she turned to hide her face and grabbed one of the Magma's medical kits before she began ranting while patching up Ash who was laughing a little.

"Looks like she's back to normal" Samantha said to David who nodded, stealing a glance back at the two. "Looks to be that way" he said.

**Chapter 9 is done. I'm not too proud of my action scene there, I could have done a better job. I'll probably go back and make it better but this needs to be out on time. Still, I got Friday off so I'm happy. I hope everyone else has April vacation like I do and sorry if you don't. Suggestions, hate, praise or anything else is always welcome. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time.**

**-novaking2832**


	11. Chapter 10: Homecoming

**Hello everyone, I'm back once again to deliver another chapter to you. First off happy Easter and Passover and I hope you got a vacation for them. I've been having decent April vacation, hasn't been bad but I'm kinda bored. But then my foster father took me shooting earlier today and some guys hat got blown onto the range and he ran out there to get it. His head was literally in my crosshairs. I could've killed a man today but for some reason I don't care anymore. If you guys have somehow interesting you want to share then I'm happy to hear it. Anyway, I'm getting way off topic, I hope you have been doing well and I'd like to thank you for clicking on my story.  
**

**Guest: Jesus Christ, thank you so much. I never knew where I got the story from but now that I think about it you are absolutely right. I owe you one, big time  
**

**Sailor Taichichi Vegeta: Well it wouldn't be interesting if it was Ash and May walking around just talking about things. Doesn't that rule apply to just about everyone with a family? A nervous breakdown they failed to prevent though.**

**jojo298: Thanks, I'm happy you enjoyed it and I'll be sure to**

**Chapter 10: Homecoming**

"That was beyond stupid of them. They sent an entire human only division after us and expected to win? They looked they were fresh out of training. Ruby and David basically took on the same thing by themselves when their platoon was taken out" Samantha said

"They had no way of knowing we were with their targets. I had Blaziken too, their armor stood no chance against and overheat. We aren't good enough to take out a division of soldiers on our own Samantha you know that" Ruby said

"Be that as it may we got you guys into trouble and now you probably won't be able to go around living a, for the most part, peaceful life" Ash said

David grinned "Well I don't know about the rest of you but I think it's good to get out once and a while. The place was making my eyes bleed anyway" he said

"Hey! I set up the place almost by myself be grateful you pompous ass" Samantha yelled at him

"You calling me pompous? I volunteered myself to take your place in the worst spot there was, remember? We pulled straws and you lost. Boss got the good set up fair and square. You should be thanking me for my generosity" David said

"Well you take your generosity and shove it up your-"

"That's enough. I don't need a headache after I've killed a bunch of people" Matt said while playing with a small shard of metal he had made into a necklace, his mask and hood now down.

Samantha just hmphed and turned to look away from David who just grinned in response. "It's like listening to a married couple" Thomas said with a stupid grin. Matt flinched a little. Thomas's face dropped "Matt...I'm sorry I didn't mean to"

"It's fine. Don't stop on my expense, keep on teasing the newly weds" Matt said, cutting Thomas off

"In that case I'll get my bible" Butch said with a grin. "Shut the fuck up, all of you" Samantha yelled. May laughed from the tree stump she was sitting on

Away from the gathered crew, Ruby and Ash were tang in victory and planning a route to the castle. "It like having five Riley's" Ash muttered, glancing over at the group. "Assuming you are excluding Matt and the fifth member is Miss Maple then yes, yes it is. At least they're in better spirits. And Miss Maple isn't clinging to you for once" Ruby said, the last part bringing a sly grin to his face

"Are you really trying to make a sex joke about an emotionally unstable woman who needs support?" Ash asked while glaring at Ruby

"Absolutely"

"You're fucked up you know that right?" Ash said. "I don't see you denying it" Ruby said.

"Fuck you" Ash said, causing Ruby to fall over laughing. Ruby sat back up and wiped fake tear off his eye, "So worth it" he said. Ash sighed and looked back at the map. "We've already crossed the border into Hoenn, we have to safely make it back to the castle and avoid all of the soldiers on the front line"

"Change the subject why don't you" Ruby said, earning another glare from Ash "But yeah, the trick to this now is sneaking past. No matter how we play our cards we won't be able to take these guys head on. If it was a platoon we could pull it off without loosing a man, especially with Blaziken, Scorch, and Pikachu with us. But if we attack one in this case the others will come running. And it's not like we can rely on help from the castle on this one. They don't even know if Miss Maple is alive" Ash nodded. "Then we'll need a lot of stealth in this one, think you're team can do it?" Ash asked. Ruby grinned once more "We ain't much Ketchum, but were not that bad. I'm worried about Miss Maple however, she knows nothing along the bounds of stealth and evasion. She will be the weak link on this one" Ash nodded again "Yes but there is little we can do about that. It's not like we can leave her here, she's the whole reason I'm in this mess"

Ruby glanced up from the map towards Ash "Which reminds me. How did you manage to get caught up in this?". Ash sighed and put a hand on his forehead "Cabbage head hired me to find her in the Dark Forest, which is where she ran to after escaping, and then tried to kill me to save some coin. Bad move on his part but I wasn't expecting any less. But anyway, for some stupid reason I ran after her when I was done killing the attempt on my life and she hired me to bring her here. So here I am, in buttfuck alley stuck with you losers"

Ruby feigned being hurt "Egads Mr. Ketchum. Your words maim me ever so much" he said in a really pompous, snobby, smug, stereotypically rich voice. Ash fell to the floor laughing. "Ooooh man I haven't laughed like that in a while" Ash said while wiping a tear from his eye. Ruby chuckled at the site and back at the still quarreling soldiers May couldn't help but smile at the site of them getting along so well. "But back to business, we should take the route up the river. We can use the cover of night to get through the platoon that watches over the area. Sound like a plan?"

Ruby nodded "Let's go inform the others". The both turned around to see Butch holding up a thrashing Samantha who was yelling "Let go of me you overgrown Primeape" a few feet off the ground and David looking on the spectacle with satisfaction. Thomas was trying to assure May that they weren't usually like this and they would guarantee her safety to the castle and Matt was simply cleaning his bow with Scorch at his side. Blaziken was sitting in a tree looking at a terrified Pikachu who was currently running away from Eevee.

"Is this what you put up with all the time?" Ash asked, a little bewildered that a professional military branch could act like fourteen year olds, even though they all in their twenties or very early thirties. Ruby just looked down and sighed

"ALL RIGHT YOU SAD EXCUSES FOR SLOWPOKES LINE UP!" Ruby yelled

They all immediately fell into a horizontal line, including Pikchu, Eevee, and May. Ruby looked a little embarrassed "Miss Maple, you don't have to line up, I was talking to them". May blushed in embarrassment and sat back down on her tree stump with Eevee. "Plan is we're heading up the river under the fall of night, there should be a lot of guards and maybe even more than usual because of our escaped convict here" he said jokingly to May "Point is this mission will require a lot of stealth, and yes Butch I know you "don't do quiet" so you're staying at the back of the pack with Miss Maple. Protect her at all costs. Ash is leading the pack through the fray with his bow and the rest of us are running interference. Thomas you're the best at stealth here, maybe Matt could take you on but that's besides the point, we need you to take out anyone that Ash, Matt, or I can't get to. Samantha, you need to keep a sharp set of eyes out, you're longshore will not be of much use yo us on the mission but your senses will. While we are firing you need to make sure no one is coming around to blindside us. David, your job here is to back up Thomas. If he gets into trouble you are going to dash in and eliminate the threat and then fall back immediately. Again Matt, Ash and I will be using our bows here so we're counting on the rest of you to make sure we din't get screwed over in the close range department. Scorch, just do what David tells you to do sand try to lay low. Same goes to you Blaziken and Pikachu, well you can handle yourself. Just stay close to Ash and warn him if anything happens. Am I understood!" Ruby said, shouting the last sentence. The cores yelled "yes sir" in response

"Umm Ruby, what should me and Eevee do?" May asked while raising her hand.

"Just keep looking beautiful as always" Ash muttered while looking off into the woods somewhere, completely zoning out. After feeling the stares of eleven life forms on him he turned to everyone and they were all staring at him. "What?" he asked while looking confused. Ruby just shook his head and smiled, Samantha grinned manically, Butch gave Ash a perverted look, Thomas winked, David gave him a thumbs up, Matt just stared at him with an impassive look on his face like he didn't care, Pikachu was looking at Ash confused, Eevee was jumping up and down in excitement, the two fire types looked at each other then back to Ash, and May just stared at the ground. Her face redder than Scorch's skin.

"Seriously what did I do?" Ash said, not realizing what he said. Ruby just walked past him and patted him on the shoulder "You got it bad buddy" he said before continuing on his way. The others just passed him giving him various looks, what threw him off was that May refused to meet his eyes. "Pikachu what did I do, why are they acting like this?" Ash asked his partner.

Pikachu just sighed and kept on walking. "Seriously! You too" Ash sighed and began to follow the group.

They had been waiting for a few hours by the time night fell. The whole time no one told Ash what he said, the worst part was when he asked May. Her face was redder than an exploding volcano and she just started babbling nonsense to avoid the subject.

He gave up after the first hour

"Alright it's time to move out" Ruby said "Use the bushes and shrubs for cover and don't make a move without notifying the others. Don't risk blowing your cover over a chance, others will come". Everyone nodded and Ash took the lead and drew out his bow, Matt just behind him to the left and Ruby to the right of Matt.

Soon they came upon a dock in the middle of the river that had chains connecting it to the ground. It was square and had a gangplank of about five feet for guards to walk around on. "Water based post up ahead, four guards on the outside patrolling the dock area and three on the inside. Total number of soldiers on the inside unknown there might be some more" Samantha said while trying to look through the only window on the building. Ash nodded to Thomas who put up his mask and hood. and slowly walked into the water till he disappeared in their black depths. "Matt be ready to take the shot on the guard on the northeast side of the post" Ash said. Matt nodded, his mask and hood now also up. Soon though the back gloves of Thomas became visible right beneath the guard that was looking out over the lake. Matt let an arrow fly and it impaled itself into the soldiers neck and he dropped forward.

Just before he hit the ground Thomas caught him and slowly dropped the armored guard into the water with him, not making a single sound as he did. "Matt there's a guard at the opposite side, drop him" Matt released another arrow and another soldier del, this time making a loud splash as he fell into the river. The two guards on the outside came running and looked over the edge where the guard fell. "Jeremy?" one asked as he saw a shape emerging from the water.

Thomas kept out of the water with two of Matt's knives in his hands and and impaled one in each of the guard's necks but immediately released the hilts and grabbed the collars of their armor just before they hit the ground and dropped them silently. He picked the knives from their throats and slowly made his way over to the door of the post. Just as he reached for the doorknob it door opened to reveal another guard looking over his shoulder at his comrades inside. Thomas ducked behind the door just before the guard saw him. The guard went to the edge of the dock with an entire bottle of ale in his hand and pulled down his trousers and began to pee off the edge of the dock. Thomas began to move towards him but stopped and waited till the man had brought his trousers back up before putting a hand over his mouth and cutting his throat. He gently laid the body down with the rest and went up to the door and knocked on it. He heard the laughter of some drunk guards and someone coming to the door. The second the door opened he cut the throat of the man who had opened it and dragged the body outside and leaned it against the door before glancing inside to see if the others had noticed, but they were too busy laughing at two Shroomish fighting each other. He didn't hesitate and silently walked behind the two and stabbed them both in the back of the neck. He dragged both the bodies outside and pilled them on the bodies before wetting his fingers with their blood and drawing a large M with a big circle around it on the inside of the building.

"Any problems?" Ash asked when Thomas had returned. He took his mask off and shook his head before smiling "No, and I think we just sent the flyer out for our return" Thomas said. Ash grinned in return, even though he wasn't a Magma Core member he could sympathize with their cause.

"Then let's keep going, there's bound to be more ahead" Sure enough there were two ground based encampments blocking their path not too far ahead. They had the same standard layout that all the Kanto camps had. Wooden spiked fences surrounded the camp and there were four guard towers also made out of wood. One facing East, another North, and so on. There was a large campfire in the center for meal and three tents all at one side of the oval shaped camp. One was the commanders tent where the layout of the battlefield was set and the leaders convened to discuss their next move, another for the higher ranking soldiers quarters and the largest of all of them was the barracks for the common soldiers and Pokemon. The two camps had a hundred yards between the two but they could see anything in-between from the guard towers and going around was not an option due to the river.

"We're going to have to do this quick and quiet. This will take a lot of stealth, coordination and good timing if we are going to take out one post to make it through" Ash said "Matt I want you to set yourself up in a tree and make sure you have a visual on all the guard towers from it okay?" Matt nodded and took off "Ruby you do the same. Butch I want you ready with Samantha at the front of the gate ready to break in and take them out if things go down the shitter. David, you and Thomas help each other get over the fence and make sure you aren't spotted. When the men in the towers start dropping, you take out everyone you can without a sound okay? If anyone gets in your way before hand take them out quietly and hide the body" David and Thomas nodded and ran towards the fence. Ash turned to Blaziken "This is one of the most important jobs. If this goes to hell you need to abandon us and get May across and run to the castle as fast as you can. Don't look back got it?" Ash said, Blaziken nodded. "The rest of you form up and protect May, your attacks will only bring unwanted attention so you can't come with us"

Finally Ash turned to May If anything happens and all of this fails and you can't make it through you run to a bar in Slateport City and go to the bartender. He's a talking Meowth who owes me a few favors. Give him this knife and he'll guarantee your safety in Hoenn for as long as you need". May just smiled and took the knife from him. "I'll take it but it won't be necessary. I know you'll succeed" she said. Ash grinned and turned to go but May grabbed his wrist and kissed him on the cheek.

"For good luck" she said with a smile and a blush on her face.

Ash just nodded dumbly and turned around to get into position. He found the tree adequate enough to get a good view of the soldiers in the camp. He looked over at Matt and took out and arrow and nodded to him. Matt nodded in return and took out an arrow and turned to do the same to Ruby who was somewhere out of Ash's sight. Ash drew the arrow and aimed at the first guard tower, choosing the man that was to the left of all the others. He used one hand to hold his arrow in place and used hand signs to tell Matt how they would target the men in the towers. He nodded and relayed the signs to Ruby. Ash took hold of his bow once again and looked at his target, he could see Matt waiting for him to fire the first shot.

Ash let a breath loose and closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and firing, he heard the screech of Ruby and Matt's arrows follow his and they all made they mark. All three of them fell to the floor of the tower dead. The saw Thomas and David start making their move and took out another arrow and began to fire with Matt and Ruby at the other tower guards.

It had been going so well

But a tower guard refused to die and yelled to the rest before one of Matt's arrows finished the job one of us failed to do. Soldiers came runnning from the barracks. None of them were prepared for a fight though, some were only in tunics, some had chain mail, and some had a few pieces of armor strapped on here and there. But even though they were unprepared, they were many and their leader cam out of his tent dressed in full armor a little bit after them, his colleagues emerging shortly after also fully dressed in armor. They all ran at Thomas and David

Ash wasted no time

He jumped from his sniping position and sprinted towards the gate, Ruby apparently having the same idea appeared running next to him. They came to the gate and saw Butch and Samantha on either side of the gate waiting to go in. Ruby ran up and kicked the door in to see Thomas and David slowly retreating towards the opposite side of the camp. "Lets go!" Ruby shouted and he began to sprint at the enemy followed by Butch, Samantha, and Ash. They mat not be able to finish the job unnoticed, but they could stop this camp from calling out to the other one for reinforcements.

Ruby engaged the soldiers who were facing away at the two Magma Core members who were barely holding back the soldiers. Ruby managed to get three down before all the attention of those surrounding him was diverted to him. The first strike came form above, an overhead the was easily ducked under. A simple jab towards the attacker and another soldier died. Then they all came at once and it became harder. The Pokemon made it worse, a few attacks here and there cut off his movements allowing little room for an offensive. So Ruby had duck and weave, he parried what he could and attacked when an opportunity arose, making his way towards David and Thomas.

Butch ran through them like a Milktank. He made it look like he was using an everlasting take down on the soldiers. The drove their weapons at him but once swipe with his axe rendered them futile. His swung his blade back and forth chopping anyone that got in his way. Even taking out a Ryhorn in mid charge by splitting its skull open. Houdoom pounced at him creating a dog pile and scratched him and used anything they could to kill him without hurting their comrades around them but he kept moving throughout the crowd towards his friends.

Samantha stayed at the gate, making sure anyone trying to cut off the escape ended up being cut off themselves. Those who weren't trying to kill the four cores in the mass of Kanto soldier were heading for her. Her longsword glowed in the moonlight, covered in blood. At one point she lost it and was left with just a shield. That was more than enough for her though. Anyone that came close was knocked unconscious or killed. She used the bottom edge as a blade and killed more than a few people with it before she got her longsword back.

Matt stood on his tree branch, letting loose arrow after arrow into the horde of enemies. The calm look in his eyes never leaving the entire time. Is someone got too close to either David or Thomas they found an arrow embedded in them. His arrow fell like raindrops. No man was safe from the hell he brought with him. It almost seemed impossible some of the shots he made. Sometimes killing two men with one arrow. But he fired away as if it was nothing with his seemingly unending supply of arrows. He didn't even hesitate after a shot, never once watching where it was going. Every time he would fire an arrow he would pull out another one before the first hits its mark. He knew it was a good shot from the beginning.

Ash cut though their ranks like melted butter. He was heading straight for the commanders. Without leadership the grunts were nothing, it's why they were grunts. They felt the need to be led. They were weak because of it, and he was taking full advantage of their weakness. They came at him like a wave, but he split the wave in two and kept moving, never once stopping to fight someone one on one. He would block a strike, dodge an attack and occasionally take out a solider who happened to get in his way or had their back turned. But no one was stopping him from getting to his targets. He broke through their lines to the leaders who were barking orders at their men. That's all they were good for, orders. Those with no skill get those with skill to do what they needed. And they were about to pay for it with their lives. They yelled at their men to kill Ash, to go at him with everything they had.

The were silenced

And Butch and Ruby broke through to Thomas and David. Thomas looked worse for wear though. He had cuts everywhere and was bleeding heavily. He was good with indirect fighting, using distractions and the environment around him to fight for him, but there was nothing except then corner he was backed in. David was not too much better. This was his kind of fight, head to head. No one stood a chance against him one on one so they attacked all at once. He could handle it but not for too much longer.

"Calvary's here boys" Butch said as he drove through the front line that was threatening the two, Ruby breaking through another part. "Butch. I never thought I'd ever be happy to see your ugly mug" David said. Butch grinned and dove right back into the fighting. Ash rejoined Samantha at the front gate. "Make sure no one gets out. Our only chance is that the other camp doesn't get word of this" Ash said. Samantha nodded and charged at the enemy, Ash joining her in her attack.

Soon the camp was turned into a graveyard. Corpses littered the ground as common as dirt, blood soaked the ground like water. Not only of it from the Kanto soldiers.

-Sapphire's POV-

It was a normal day

And just like any other, nothing was happening. We had long since given up on an offensive strategy and so had the Kanto soldiers. Now it was just a stand off. Occasionally we would send out sabotage parties that would raid caravans and destroy their supplies, but that did little to defeat the enemy. Only stall any chance they had at an offensive.

My job as the general of the Aqua Guard was to lead the troops into battle. It used to be Archie's job but King Norman assigned him to protect the daughter of the Sinnoh royal family that had arrived with the last of their army.

Dawn was her name

Archie was still the leader of the Aqua Guard but he couldn't lead us into battle anymore. That was the three general's job and I'm one of my job right now is daily training with the Aqua troops.

"Come on ya pansies your runnin' like you don't want breakfast" I yelled form the front of the line of soldiers that was running around the training ground. I could hear them all grumble and complain but I ignored it and kept on running. When I came around for another lap though all the men had stopped running and were walking to the gate.

"Hey! where ya all goin'!? We ain't done runnin' yet" I yelled after them. One turned around and yelled "Boss they're letting some more people through the gates". I sighed and began to join them, the had formed a semicircle around the thick iron doors that had yet to be opened. One of the men at the gate watch towers ran through the crowd yelling "Get King Norman immediately!". Soon both royal families joined us in the center of our semicircle to welcome our new guests. We always did this but no one that could help in the war effort showed up. The king was always there to meet each newcomer though and ask if they had any news about his daughter.

"Opening the gates!" one of the watchmen yelled form the top of the wall. The doors opened to reveal eight figures. There was a big one with a scrawny looking guys on his back, another with a tall girl in his arms, some guy dressed in black with a Pikachu had a girl in his arms, the girl had and Eevee on her, another had a bow and was leading up the rear, looking behind the group for anyone following with a Slugma. A powerful Blaziken walked beside the last figure. Soon they all came into focus and everyone gasped. All of them were covered in blood.

"May?" King Norman whispered. The guy in the black gently shook the girls in his arms and she stirred a little. She looked hop at the guy before looking at the crowd of assembled people. "Dad?' she asked back. She leapt out of the guy's arms and ran at her father, wrapping her arms around him and her mother Caroline soon joined in with tears running down her cheeks, Prince Max only moments afterwards. Soon though King Norman let go of his daughter and approached the others "I owe you everything I have for this. Who are you?" he asked.

The one beside the Blaziken walked up and stood in front of King Norman before bowing on one knee. "Magma Core leader Ruby reporting for duty sir" he said with his head bowed. Norman stepped back in shock "Leader?" he asked.

"Ruby" I whispered and I saw the guys surrounding me look at me weirdly

Ruby stood up and nodded before saying "Sir, everyone here needs medical attention immediately I suggest that we-" he started before Butch collapsed on one knee and fell to the ground with Thomas still on his back.

"Get the to the infirmary now!"

**I like this chapter a lot. I think I did a pretty good job this time, though I wasn't sure where to leave off. Should it have been when they were opening the gates or when Butch collapsed? I don't know but I hope you enjoyed, suggestions, support, hate and anything else is always welcome. Thanks for clicking on the story and I hope you enjoyed it. Till next time**

**-novaking2832**


	12. Chapter 11: If you aren't Jealous

**Hello everyone, April vacation is over for me now. Even though I'm typing on the second to last day of it. On the bright side I'm going to a Red Sox game on May 2nd. We don't really have baseball in the UK so I'm not 100% what to expect but I'm going with friends and as long as they're they, well I'll go to hell and bad with those idiots. I love those stupid bastards, but anyway I hope you have all been well and have enjoyed the story so far. Thanks to all who clicked on it and I hope you enjoy the new chapter, there's going to be little action in this and I have only thought of one way to make an action seen but no one dies in it. It's only sparring, that actually just gave me an idea for 2 action seems. One will be hand to hand and the only with be sword sparring. Maybe there'll be a seen of everyone training, whatever. Point is that this is chapter 11 and I hope you guys like it.**

**jojo298: You're welcome, it was my pleasure. And thanks for the compliment**

**Rubyspe: Well I glad I could be privileged with one of your reviews, and I'm glad you enjoyed the fighting seen. I wasn't sure about the style I did it in. The first action seens I focused on Ash and had him peek and see how the others were doing and give a small description of how their fights were going. But I really wanted to show you how the entirety of the Magma Core fought so I gave descriptions about all of them. I kind of make them sound invincible when I describe what they're doing but I don't want to ruin the moment with "Ruby received a large gash on his chest, the blood was flowing in a unstoppable torrent". That just kills the mood. Thanks though, I'm happy you enjoyed it.****  
**

**Guest: Well thank you, I seriously couldn't remember what gave me the idea and it was killing me**

**Sailor Taichichi Vegeta: Someone might die and someone might not, you never know. Yeah, that kind of seemed like a Ash moment didn't it? You know, when he doesn't know what he's saying. Stole that first part from a movie though, but the movie was great so I have no regrets that I borrowed a small eight second clip and put it into words. What you thought I killed Meowth off after all that? I ain't that cold. Glad to hear it, and I did that kind of a fight scene in this chapter and the one on one kind of fighting as well.**

**Fallingarcher22: I glad you enjoyed it, I try to put in as much action as I can and I hope you stick around for the end**

**Chapter 11: If you aren't Jealous...**

I was relieved to hear Butch only fell unconscious from blood loss. He had us all really worried and the impact knocked Thomas, who was already struggling to stay awake, unconscious as well. Samantha had already been unconscious, she fell right after the fighting stopped. But now we were all in the infirmary minus the princess who had been reunited with her family and friends. Princess Dawn basically dragged her away after the celebration was finished, at least that's what Ash had told me. She hadn't visited yet, or maybe she did but I was asleep, but I'm a lowly soldier who might as well have made her kill the man she stabbed. That was my fault and mine alone. At least Ash calmed her down.

Speaking of which he was on the bed across from me. I was at the end of the infirmary room next to Butch who was next to Thomas who was next to Samantha. Ash was on the other side about eight yards away next to David who had no one next to him. They were all sleeping, Ash was having a nightmare by the looks of things. The frown on his face and the occasional twitch of his hand tells me he's fighting someone in his nightmare, and losing. Weird considering that's the reason I'm the only one awake. At least we could leave tomorrow, even though the doctors advised against it. We can't stay cooped up here too long, it had already been two and days, now on the third day.

The door opened to reveal both royal families and Archie with his generals right behind him. May walked over to me because I was the only one awake. I immediately jumped from my bed and went down to one knee and placed the fist opposite of the bowed knee on the ground and bowed my head. "Your highness, you honor me with your presence" I said immediately. I probably didn't look too dignified, having my bare chest showing off with bandages in many places and only being in my ripped pants. At least I still had my bandanna.

May giggled a little before saying "Ruby I think we know each other well enough for you to drop with the formalities. Just call me May"

"If that is you wish your highn-...May" I said, correcting myself before standing up. I scanned the other faces, King Norman, Queen Caroline, Prince Max, Queen Johanna, Princess Dawn, and Archie watched on a little bit behind May. The three generals were behind Archie, and his eyes connected with hers. If looks could kill she'd be in a grave right now. Archie saw his look towards his direction and thought Ruby was looking at him.

"Hey you got a problem with me kid?" he said menacingly. I turned his gaze to him and put an impassive look on my face.

"I wasn't looking at you. But if you have the audacity to threaten me in front of the royal families of both Hoenn and Sinnoh then the Aqua Guard must be doing poorly. The Archie I remember would have never even considered using violence in front of the royal family" I said

Archie's face contorted in anger "Why you little" he said while taking a step forward. "Enough Archie" King Norman said, he took a step forward and and put his arm on my shoulder. "Ruby, can you please tell us about the last of the Magma Core" King Norman asked, his face deadly serious

I nodded and but my hand at a ninety degree angle behind my back "I will start with the myself. I am Ruby, current leader of the Magma Core as appointed by Maxie during combat. My designation in tyne Black Book is seventy seven with the nickname "The Red Eyed Reaper" due to the color of my eyes and the battle where David and I lost our platoon. My specialization is with my sword and hand to hand combat. Other skills include archery and I'm adept at knife throwing. My platoon was the one led by Maxie on a joint operation with the Aqua Guard in deep Kanto territory" Ruby said, turning into the analytical machine Maxie trained him to be.

"The man to my right is Butch, he is the heavy weapons expert of the Magma Core. He belonged the the strike force charged with attacking Saffron which ended in the total destruction of his unit. His skills include heavy weaponry, particularly with a double bladed axe. The man to his right is Thomas, our espionage expert He belonged to the same unit as Butch and they are the last surviving members of it. His skills include a mastery of stealth and evasion alone with exceptional short sword skills and knife combat and knife throwing"

"The woman to his right is Samantha, the defense expert. Her skills include a mastery of the sword and shield. She was the commander of a platoon that was completely wiped out and she left her post to allow someone more adequate to take over. Than man across from Butch is David, he is our blades master. His skills include the mastery of any and all weapons that could be considered a sword or knife, his preference is the longsword"

"The man who is currently somewhere outside the infirmary is Matt, our bow expert. His designation in the Black Book is number eighty five with the nickname "Hell's Angel" which he earned because it seems as though he rains arrows from the heavens but his mask and hood make it seem like he's from hell. His skill set includes an outstanding bow expertise rivaled by few along with highly developed knife skills. He was in the squad that was sent into Johto and his entire squad was lost leaving him the last Magma Core archer" Ruby finished with his monotone analysis of his friends. Norman pointed to Ash though "What about him then?"

Ruby looked at Ash but hesitated, wondering how much information he should give "He is the mercenary known as "The Ranger". His designation in the Black Book is thirty four with the nickname "The Black Death of Kanto" which he earned through the slaughter of countless bandits and even Giovanni's soldiers. Hius skills include exemplary swordsmanship and hand to hand combat. He is proficient in Archery and is a master of the knife. His partner Pikchu is one of the best lightning users there is"

"So why was he with all of you?" Norman asked. Ruby paused again before looking at May. "he was with May before any of us were, he appeared toys coming from the river died and out of breath with may at his side. So I believe May has the answer to that question" Ruby finished although he knew the answer

All eyes turned to May "Well, when I first escaped from the tower in Saffron I got to the Dark Forest but I stepped on the mushrooms on a Paras's back and fell unconscious with Eevee. When I woke up Prince Drew and some soldiers were looking for me along with him. Drew had apparently hired him because he had been in the Dark Forest before then and knew his way around. He was the one who found me an dragged me out to Drew but Drew tried to kill him instead of pay him. He let me go to fight and I ran but he caught up with me soon. He was going to leave me alone but then I offered him one hundred gold pieces to bring me here" May said

"So he's just looking out for himself huh" Norman said with a frown

"Don't say that about him! Ash is a good person and without him I wouldn't be here right now. In fact I would probably back in the tower at Saffron or being tortured for trying to escape" May yelled at him

"Ash?" Max said curiously. May's eyes widened when she realized what she said and covered her mouth. Suddenly Ash bolted up from his bed, he was breathing heavily and sweating. He tore the covers off himself and stood up, still not noticing everyone looking at him and began tearing all the bandages from his chest and arms. He sighed and rubbed a hand through his hair when he was done before finally turning around to face the people staring at him.

"Uhhh hi" Ash said with a small wave, not exactly realizing that he wasn't supposed to be shirtless in front of two princesses and their royal families.

"Ash your awake!" May said with a smile, running up to him and giving him a hug. "I'll go and get Pikachu for you. Be right back" she said while leaving to go get his partner. Ash blinked, a little confused at her behavior and looked to Ruby who shrugged, but then frowned, realizing that she said his first name out loud. Norman had his mouth agape, his sweet little daughter who had been in captivity for years just hugged a mercenary who has killed countless amounts of people. Caroline just smiled at Ash "Well it's been a pleasure Ash, we'll see you around the castle won't we?" she said while dragging the king outside with Max looking back at Ash curiously. Ash nodded and Dawn smiled and waved as did Johanna. All that was left was Archie and his three generals, one of which Ash knew.

Archie stepped forward to Ruby "So Maxie is dead" he said it as more of a statement than a question but Ruby nodded "And you're his replacement" he said in the same tone, Ruby nodded again. "Why did it take so long for you to get back? You can't tell me you were planning on rescuing the princess and were just bidding your time" Archie asked.

Ruby looked up at Archie "I watched my entire platoon die in front of me as did David, Thomas and Butch suffered a similar fate, Samantha believes she was responsible for the deaths of an entire platoon, Matt lives each day hating himself because he couldn't protect his wife. None of us thought we had the right to return. We all failed in some way, what army would want a set of failures?" Ruby said

"But the Magma Core is the best military unit there is. If you tell someone this I'll deny but you are better than us, by a lot. I was told about what happened on your last mission. That the Aqua Guard had the choice of helping your squad and possibly loosing men, or turning and running. I have never been so ashamed to be the leader of the Aqua Guard in my life and in behalf of that Aqua Guard I apologize" Archie said sincerely Ruby looked at him and his eyes softened a little "If you're worried about me telling King Norman about how you abandoned us you have nothing to fear" Archie looked at Ruby in surprise "If I told him about that it would only cause the king to distrust the Aqua Guard. That's the last thing we need at this moment. So just forget about it, okay? We'll settle the score some other time" Ruby said, his eyes drifting to meet Sapphire's when he said the last part.

They stared at each other for a moment before Ruby grunted and started waking towards the door "Ash we need to keep up a good work ethic so when everyone's cleared tomorrow we're going to train hard, got it?"

Ash smirked "I can still kick your ass Ruby, don't forget that" Ruby chuckled at that before leaving to get some cloths for everybody. Ash turned to the leaving Aqua Guard members. "Sapphire" he called out to her just as they reached the door. She turned to look at him and a silent message was sent from him to her. She bowed her head and walked out of the room followed by four confused Aqua Guard members.

"PikaPi!" cried Pikachu as his partner burst through the door and jumped at his friend. "Woah, come on buddy I was just sleeping for a few hours. Not like I was dying or anything, you saw me a few hours ago" Ash said while Pikachu rubbed his cheek against Ash's. "Vee!" Eevee cried as she ran through the door. Pikachu instantly paled and his behind Ash's head as best he could.

"Uh Pikachu, what are you doing?" Ash questioned. Pikachu just shook his head frantically and continued to hide behind Ash's head. Eevee leapt to Ash's shoulder and turned behind his head coming face to face with Pikachu. "Pika!" Pikachu yelled before sprinting out the door with Eevee hot on his heels.

Ash just tilted his head in confusion "Well it looks like those two are getting along well" May commented from the door.

"Yeah, I guess they are" Ash said "Are those for me?" Ash said, pointing at the clothes in May's arms. She nodded her head and gave them to him, he took them gratefully and began to take of his pants. May immediately turned around with a blush on her face "W-what are you doing?" she asked.

"What did you bring these clothes for me not to put on?" Ash said sarcastically.

"N-no, I mean w-why are you undressing in front of me?" May stuttered out

"Getting excited are we?" Ash whispered in her ear.

May jumped from his closeness and turned around to see him thankfully clothed and with a cocky smile in his face. Her face flushed in anger and embarrassment. "N-no, I would never like a barbarian like you" May huffed out, turning her head to the side.

Ash smiled deviously "You know, I hear Pokemon have the same feelings as their owners" he said very nonchalantly "Got something you want to say to me?" he asked. May's face grew even redder "As if!" she said

Ash laughed at that before walking towards the door "Come on, we're no doubt giving all of these guys nightmares. Let's give them some peace and you can show me around, shall we?" Ash said while holding a hand out to May. She instantly forgot about what he'd been teasing her about and latched her arm to his before leading him down the hallway.

-May's POV-

"Ow! Dawn calm down, you're hurting my wrist" May said as Dawn dragged her towards her room. Dawn shoved the door open and might as well have threw May on the bed.

"Alright you got some explaining to do. Why did I see you hanging off the side of that guy's arm while walking around the castle?" Dawn questioned

May tried to fight off a blush "Well, I was just showing him around the castle. He has never been here before and I thought I'd show him around so he knows where he's going"

"Oh I know he hasn't been here before. I think I would remember someone so...damn" Dawn said with a perverted smile

"Dawn!" May exclaimed

"What? Already got a claim on him?" Dawn said with a suggestive smile and a raised eyebrow

May's face went bright red "N-no, that's not it at all"

"Ha! I knew it! You're totally head over heels for this guy" Dawn said while laughing on the floor. "So how was he?"

"What do you mean?" May asked

"You know, was he good?" Dawn asked, but May just tilted her head in confusion. Dawn sighed "Guess I'll have to go with the direct approach. How good was the sex?"

"DAWN!"

Dawn rolled on the floor laughing at May's tomato red face

-Next Day, Sapphire's POV-

"Come on! If ya keep doggin' it then we gonna be runnin' all day" I yelled at my platoon who were all on their knees or on the ground gasping for breath. "Give us a break boss we're tired" a guys said. We had only done a few laps around the courtyard. This was ridiculous. "Hey check it out guys. There's the Magma people sparring over there" one guys said while pointing towards the archway that lead to the weapons training ground. All the men started to walk towards the archway to check out there their rivals skill.

"Hey where the fuck do ya think you're goin'?" I called after them, but they ignored me and kept walking towards the training ground. I sighed and followed them having nothing better to do. When we passed through I saw why they wanted to watch

The big guy, Butch I think, was fighting the small and scrawny one Tom. They both had wooden weapons, the big guy with an axe, the small one with two knives. Tom had weights in his leafs and arms though, to slow him down and make things harder for him. They were in a deadlock, Butch was trying to push Tom to the ground but Tom was holding his ground. Soon Tom rolled under his legs and swiped at Butch's exposed back but Butch jumped forward in time to dodge. They kept going at each other, Butch tried to overpower Tom to trip him up but Tom dodged and moved around like he was Mew or something.

The lady, Sarah?, Sam?, Serena? I think it was Sam was, facing off against the guy in Ruby's platoon, David. David kept her at arms length with his wooden longsword, not letting her get close enough to attack him, but he himself was having trouble getting a good attack in. Sam kept using her shield to block all strikes and lunged at David, trying to stab him but he spun the right so he would stop just a few inches behind her and brought his blade and stabbed behind his back, stopping millimeters from hitting her. "Severe liver damage, possible broken ribs" David said with a smirk. Sam growled in frustration and jumped back before going right back at it with him.

The bowman, Matt was firing arrows at the Blaziken who was dodging them at a wall. Matt would occasionally get a hit in but the Blaziken seemed unfazed by the bruise it most likely just received. A Slugma was firing flamethrowers at a stone wall as well. "Check out the merc and the lead Magma, I hear the merc is in the thirties in the Black Book and the lead Magma is in the seventies" one of my men said.

I looked over to see Ruby and Ash fighting in hand to hand combat. Both of the idiots had their shirts allowing you to see the sweat glistening off their bodies. Their fists were like blurs. Ash was on the offensive right now throwing punch after punch and Ruby was barley dodging or blocking them. Soon Ruby managed to catch Ash's right fist and used his own right hook to try and get Ash in the face but Ash ducked and swept Ruby's legs out from under him before flipping him over and restraining him. "Yield!" I heard him say.

"Break my fucking arm" Ruby spat back at him. Ash just sighed and let him go before offering a hand out to Ruby. "That wouldn't help now would it?" Ash said while pulling Ruby up. Now let's go another round, shall we?" Ash said while getting into a defensive stance. I glanced up and saw King Norman and the two princesses watching everything from up on a terrace. The princesses were giggling about something and King Norman was watching curiously.

We saw Ruby lose one more time before he stood up and brushed himself off before turning to his men "Alright all of you" he said, instantly getting the attention of his men "Let's do twenty five laps around the castle as a warm up and then we're going straight into strength and conditioning. Thomas you do suicides with a total of forty pounds weighing you down and up that as you go along, Samantha you work with David on your speed as well, David give her the appropriate amount of weight she needs. Butch, I will work on strength and Matt you keep up your accuracy training with Blaziken except I want you shooting from two hundred yards out rather then one hundred. If I don't see bruises on Blaziken than your running laps till dinner time, got it? Scorch I want to see that rock turned to magma by the end of the day so lets move it!" Ruby commanded

All of them except Ash stood at attention and and yelled "Understood before going running past all the stupefied Aqua members towards the castle entrance. Ruby talked to Ash for a moment before they both ran towards us. "Hello Aqua Guard how's your training proceeding?" Ruby asked some of the guys in the front "If any of you want to join in than feel free to" Ruby said as he passed us with Ash.

Ruby waved back at us while he and Ash ran towards the others. "Are they even human?" I heard some guy say. "It's like they're Machamps or something" another said. "With those abs it wouldn't surprise me" I heard a girl say "The white haired one looked hot" I heard my fellow general Blue say.

I don't know why, but those last two got me mad, really mad.

"What'dya mean the white haired one's hot?" I demanded from her. Blue just smirked at me "Well Sapph when a girl finds a boy attractive she usually calls him hot or handsome, I thought your daddy taught you these things when you were little". My face went red with anger "If you think you can insult me without gettin' hurt then you got another thing coming!" I yelled at her

"Fine, it'll be a good demonstration for the platoon anyway. Let's do it right after I'm done admiring Mr. Red Eyes over there" Blue said while walking to wards the castle entrance and followed by the platoon also curious to see if the Magma Core was as tough as they appeared to be. I heard the third general, Green, mutter his favorite adjective for Blue, "pesky".

I was trembling in rage by the time they left the castle walls "NO YA NOT. WE'RE GONNA FIGHT NOW!" I yelled after her and charged to catch up with her and drag her back to the now vacant training grounds.

Our platoon sat watching from the side, none of them trued to stop us. I'm not surprised, they saw this as a way to delay their training and get some entertainment at the same time. Blue stood opposite me, wooden sword in hand but it rested lazily at her side. I was in a defensive stance with my practice sword, ready for anything that she might try.

After a couple of seconds I realized that she wasn't going to attack me and I would have to make the initial strike. I lunged at her and went to slash at her waist but she met my strike with a parry and countered with strike to the same place. I ducked under the strike and came up to stab her in the gut but she twisted to the left and tried to hit me over the head with her sword but I rolled to her left.

I quickly stood to face her charging at me with and overhead that I parried before coming down from my overhead parry to attack her neck. She ducked under my strike and and made a slash at my waist that I parried. I drove my sword at her chest but she twisted out of the way again, but I simply flicked my sword towards her and hit her with the flat of my blade across the neck. I took the opportunity as she reeled back from the unexpected strike and put my leg behind hers and pushed to the ground before taking a step back to let everyone see who one the match.

"I have to say, that was pretty good" a voice from the archway said. We all turned to see the Magma Core and Ash watching, all of them covered in sweat. Ruby walked over to Blue and held out a hand which she took. "Your dodges were good but your counters were slow and predictable. An adjustment in your stance would help" Ruby said to Blue. Blue sent a smirk at me before saying "Could you show me?" Ruby nodded and got into the stance.

Blue got into a stance similar but I could tell she was purposely doing it wrong. Ruby walked over to her and pressed his chest against her back before gently grabbing her arms and guiding them to the place they should be.

The sight of their bodies pressed together infuriated me to no end

I yelled in anger before driving my sword directly at Blue. Ruby grabbed the sword from Blue's hand and pushed the blade underneath the hilt of mine and twisted so the sword came out of my hand. He grabbed my outstretched hand that no longer had a sword in it and wrapped it around my back before dropping his sword and hooking my throat in his elbow.

"If you got a problem, you take it up with me. Got it?" Ruby whispered in my ear. I nodded, a little scared at the speed that he carried out the maneuver with. "Good, now go cry about this to your pussy ass boyfriend" Ruby whispered darkly before shoving me towards the astonished Aqua Guard platoon. "Lady, you ain't got no chance against the boss" Thomas yelled from the side

I sent him a glare that would send most people scampering away but he just grinned back at me. Ruby walked over and stood in front of his group "Alright everyone, begin the assignments I gave you. If I see anyone of you half assing it you will be sleeping outside tonight, am I understood?" Ruby said. They all stood at attention once more and yelled "understood" before going about there tasks.

Blue joined me and green who were watching the cores work out. "Do you notice how they all follow his commands without question or hesitation? And though they lack in numbers they all have well rounded capabilities that give them diverse ways to fight. They have stealth, archery, knives, sword and shield, longsword, and heavy weapons. Truly a force to be reckoned with" Green said analytically

"How come our unit can't follow our orders like that?" Blue mumbled. "Probably because they know how much of a pesky girl you are" Green mumbled.

"I'm sorry I don't think I heard you correctly. Did you sat I was pesky?" Blue said with an overly sweet voice. Green started to sweat a little "I don't know what you're talking about Blue" he said while trying to walk away to get out of the situation.

"Oh yes you do" Blue said while running after him. "Uh, Sapph. A little help here?" Green pleaded as Blue began running at him. He paused in his walking and stared back at Sapphire who had yet to move from her position. "Sapph?" he called out, even pausing Blue. But I didn't hear a word they said, I just kept staring at Ruby. His last words stung, a lot.

And I don't know why.

**I hope you guys like the action seems in this. I'm sure about the transition between showing everyone fighting vs one on one combat. If you don't like one than tell me and I'll try to leave it out. But I hope you enjoyed the chapter and thanks for clicking on it in the first place. On a side end note I saw Con Air starring Nicolas Cage...never see that movie if you want to stay sane. I actually got mad at the movie, I mean, who blows up from getting hit by a motorcycle? Seriously. But thanks again and I'll see you next time.**

**-novaking2832**


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